- (1.) The petitioner's claim for compassionate assistance arising on account of death of her husband while in harness on 31.8.2001, is resisted, inter alia, on the ground that in terms of the scheme, the claim must have been made within a period of six months from the death and it could be extended by a further period of three months by the CGM (P&HRD). The petitioner has engaged the respondents in communications much later in the year 2006 that she did apply for compassionate appointment within the stipulated time and the respondents have at all times denied in the communications which are brought through Annexures R-1 to R-3 in the year 2006 that there had been no demand for compassionate assistance within the period.
(2.) When the terms of the scheme itself are not challenged, I cannot make any deviation from the terms which address the issue of delay as one of the grounds for not entertaining the claim for compassionate assistance. It must be noticed that the scheme of compassionate assistance itself is a deviation from Article 14 and intended to bring a succour that has lost the bread winner of the family. The immediacy of relief to the family in distress is the very raison d'elre for compassionate assistance, I cannot therefore also find that a time limit under the scheme is in any way arbitrary.
(3.) The defence is also taken by the respondents that the petitioner was herself a teacher in the School and she was therefore not entitled to consideration for compassionate assistance. I would discard such an objection for it is not, as if any person who makes a claim should be unemployed or must have no source of income. All that the scheme provides is the reluctance of income criterion of the claimant for consideration of the fact whether the person is entitled to compassionate assistance. In such a reckoning, the authorities, under normal circumstances shall consider the adequacy of income, nature of appointment, the security of tenure etc. as relevant factors for finding the issue of entitlement or otherwise for compassionate assistance.;