The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday allowed the appeal of the State Government against compassionate appointment of Mukesh Kumar.
The appeal filed under section 2(1) of the MP Uchcha Nyayalaya (Khand Nyayapeeth Ko Appeal) Adhiniyam, 2005 challenging the order dated 20.11.2019 passed in WP No.19338/2019, whereby the Single Judge by applying the policy applicable to the Work Charge Contingency Paid Employee directed consideration of the respondent Mukesh Kumar for compassionate appointment.
Archana Kher, Counsel for the appellant/State, submitted that before the writ court, the State could not file its reply. However, as per the documents on record namely service book and office order dated 26.11.2016, the father of original petitioner was not a contingency paid employee. Indeed, he was initially a daily rated employee, who was given status of “Permanent Employee” as per circular dated 07.10.2016. By taking this to the circular dated 07.10.2016 it is argued that this provision does not contain any right of consideration for compassionate appointment.
CS Sharma, Counsel for the respondent, placed reliance on the service book and on the order dated 26.11.2019 but contended that father of the respondent was a contingency paid employee.
A single-judge bench of Justice Shailendra Shukla observed, “A plain reading of order dated 20.11.2019 passed by the learned single judge shows that it has not been determined anywhere as to what was the status of father of the present respondent. Putting it differently, the learned single judge merely mentioned the date of death of father of the original petitioner, the date when application for compassionate appointment was rejected and then applied the circular dated 31.08.2016 which is admittedly applicable for dependents of Work Charge Contingency Paid Employees.”
In the view of the Court, it is to be determined as to what was the status of the original petitioner’s father and which policy will govern the question of grant of compassionate appointment. In absence of the said determination, the impugned order dated 20.11.2019 cannot be permitted to stand.
The bench has set aside the order dated 20.11.2019 and the matter is remanded back to the Writ Court with the direction to the State to file its response within three weeks.
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