Widow Of Co-Op Bank Employee Dismissed For Illness-Related Absence To Get Compassionate Appointment If Eligible: Madras HC

M. Rama’s husband, V. Murthy, an assistant employed by the appellant Bank, was dismissed for unauthorised absence after an enquiry. He died shortly afterwards.

Rama’s request for compassionate appointment was rejected because Murthy had been dismissed and was not in service when he died.

After obtaining liberty in an earlier writ petition to challenge the dismissal, she appealed to the Joint Registrar. The Registrar rejected her challenge without addressing the dismissal on its merits.

In a subsequent writ petition, the Single Judge set aside the dismissal and directed notional reinstatement, death-cum-retirement benefits, and consideration of Rama’s compassionate appointment application. The Bank appealed.

The judgment identifies no specific statute or precedent as the basis for its decision. It applies the principle that an administrative decision addressing a challenge to dismissal must give reasons and consider the challenge on its merits; a non-speaking order is inadequate.

It also limits the consequence of notional reinstatement in this case: that status is to be used only to consider compassionate appointment, not to confer other monetary or service benefits, and appointment remains subject to the claimant satisfying the applicable employment requirements.

The Registrar rejected Rama’s appeal solely because her husband had been dismissed, without determining her challenge to the dismissal itself. The Court agreed that this was a non-speaking decision and that the dismissal challenge should have been considered on its merits; it therefore upheld the Single Judge’s intervention to the extent necessary to treat Murthy as notionally in service for considering compassionate appointment.

However, because the dismissal arose from prolonged unauthorised absence, the Court held that the explanation provided by Rama did not justify extending notional reinstatement into an entitlement to back wages or other attendant monetary benefits.

The Bank was directed to consider her application within one month and provide a suitable posting if she satisfied the other employment requirements. The direction for death-cum-retirement benefits did not survive as an independent monetary entitlement.

The appeal was disposed of with modified directions.