Kin of incapacitated staff can also get jobs, says SC

“When an employee dies in harness, his family is thrown into penury and sudden distress on account of stoppage of income. But where a person is permanently incapacitated due to serious illness or accident, and his services are consequently terminated, the family is thrown into greater financial hardship, because not only the income stops, but at the same time there is a considerable additional expenditure by way of medical treatment as also the need for an attendant to constantly look after him,” observed a Bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and L S Panta.

The court held that “consequences in case of an employee being medically invalidated on account of a serious illness/accident will be no less, in fact far more than the consequences of death in harness”. “When compassionate appointment of a dependent of a Government servant who dies in harness is accepted to be an exception to the general rule, there is no reason or justification to hold that an offer of compassionate appointment to the dependent of a government servant who is medically invalidated, is not an exception to the general rule,” the Bench noted.

With this, the SC upheld the constitutional validity of the three government orders issued by Andhra Pradesh, which contained this scheme for the kin of employees who are medically invalidated. AP HC had struck down such appointments made by the state under a policy as being violative of the Constitution and discriminatory in nature.