Compassionate appointments permitted by statute cannot be denied citing agreements entered into with trade unions : High Court of Kerala

The High Court of Kerala has recently held that compassionate appointments permitted by statute cannot be denied citing agreements entered into with labour unions.

The ruling came while the Court was considering a petition filed by R Rita Bella of Kozhipara in Palakkad questioning denial of compassionate appointment by KSEB citing a provision in long term settlement (LTS) with few registered trade unions.

Rita's husband 31-year-old Felix Leo, who was working as a lineman, had suffered serious injuries in a motor accident on January 21, 2007 and he became permanently incapacitated. He was certified to be permanently disabled at 100 per cent by KG Hospital at Coimbatore.

Though Rita sought appointment under compassionate scheme, KSEB turned down the claim.  Assailing the stand of the KSEB, Rita approached the High Court. Defending its stand in Court, the KSEB attempted to justify its decision of declining to grant compassionate appointment to Rita by relying on a long term settlement entered with the trade unions in March 2007.

In one of the clauses of the LTS, it was stated that compassionate appointment would be granted only in if the employee became invalid due to accidents occurred during the course and out of employment. The accident had occurred on a Sunday and Felix was not on duty that day.

Disagreeing with KSEB's stand, Justice V. Chitambaresh held, "The Regulation as regards appointment of dependents of employees of KSEB who retire on invalid pension are statutory and the powers can be traced to the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948. Valuable rights have been conferred thereunder prescribing the eligibility for appointment provided at least one year of service was left for the invalid employee. These rights can be abridged or otherwise altered only by an amendment of the statutory regulations, which has not hitherto been done. A long term settlement cannot override the statutory regulations in deciding the eligibility for appointment of dependents of employees who retire on invalid pension."