CENTRAL COALFIELDS LIMITED Vs. RAJENDRA DUSADH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD counsel on both sides.

(2.) AN application for compassionate appointment was made by the first respondent on 23.8.1999. His father had died on 18.1.1999. The circular that governed at the relevant time, provided only for six months from the date of death, for making an application for compassionate appointment. In August, 2002 the appellant rejected the application of the respondent on the ground that the application was beyond the period of six months.

(3.) WHAT is contended on behalf of the appellant is that the circular fixing the period of one year is not retrospective in operation and the respondent must be governed by the circular dated 12.12.1995 which was in operation when his father died -in harness. Normally that would have been the position, but in this case, this Court had struck down the prescription of six months for making the application as unreasonable. Therefore, it was as if the said period was never a governing factor for compassionate appointment. The appellant on the basis of that decision, introduced a period of one year for making an application for compassionate appointment. It must therefore be taken that at relevant times, before the subsequent modification made on the basis of an agreement with Union, the time for application for compassionate appointment was one year from the date of death. So viewed, the first respondent had applied in time, in that he made the application within eight months of the death of his father. The learned Single Judge was therefore, justified in granting relief to the first respondent. The decision rendered by us in W.P.(S) No. 6589 of 2002 date 13.8.2004 relied on by learned counsel for the appellant does not militate against this decision.