Case Note & Summary
The petitioner, Ranjita Gautam Sadashiv, filed a writ petition seeking compassionate appointment in place of her husband, a Secondary School Teacher who died on 05.03.2016. The legal impediment was that the petitioner had three children, with the third child born on 12.10.2004, after the cut-off date of 31.12.2001 prescribed by a Government Resolution dated 28.03.2001. However, the petitioner relied on a subsequent notification dated 28.03.2005 issued by the Deputy Secretary, State of Maharashtra, which prescribed a small family norm as an essential qualification for recruitment, with a cut-off date of 28.03.2005. The court considered the notification and found that it pertained only to recruitment in government departments and that the petitioner's third child was born before the cut-off date of 28.03.2005. Therefore, the bar on having more than two children would not apply. The court also noted that the petitioner had received Rs.17,79,266/- in service benefits and was receiving a monthly pension of Rs.33,000/-. The court allowed the petition, directing the respondents to consider the petitioner's application for compassionate appointment without applying the small family norm bar, and to pass appropriate orders within four weeks.
Headnote
A) Compassionate Appointment - Small Family Norm - Cut-off Date - Government Resolution dated 28.03.2005 - The petitioner's third child was born on 12.10.2004, before the cut-off date of 28.03.2005 prescribed by the Government Resolution. The court held that the bar on having more than two children would not apply to children born before the cut-off date, and thus the petitioner was not disqualified from seeking compassionate appointment. (Paras 2-5)
Issue of Consideration
Whether the small family norm requiring not more than two children, as per Government Resolution dated 28.03.2005, applies to compassionate appointment when the third child was born before the cut-off date of 28.03.2005.
Final Decision
The petition is allowed. The respondents are directed to consider the petitioner's application for compassionate appointment without applying the small family norm bar, and to pass appropriate orders within four weeks.
Law Points
- Compassionate appointment
- small family norm
- cut-off date
- retrospective application
- Government Resolution dated 28.03.2005
