Compassionate appointment: Widowed daughter-in-law’s eligibility to be determined from govt staff’s date of death, says HC

The issue of the case was whether a woman who married the government employee’s son approximately two years after his death and subsequently became a widow could be entitled to a compassionate appointment

LUCKNOW The Lucknow bench of the Allahabbad high court has ruled that the eligibility of a “widowed daughter-in-law” for compassionate appointment must be determined with reference to the date of death of the government employee. The court held that a person who was not a member of the “family unit” at the time of the employee’s death cannot claim eligibility based on subsequent events such as marriage or widowhood.

The court held that the appellant had no right to the appointment because she was not even the daughter-in-law of the family at the time of Sangeeta Bajpai’s death. (Pic for representation)

The division bench of justice Rajan Roy and justice Abhdesh Kumar Choudhary passed this judgement on April 24 while dismissing the special appeal of one Deepika Tiwari.

The issue of the case was whether a woman who married the government employee’s son approximately two years after his death and subsequently became a widow could be entitled to a compassionate appointment. The court had to interpret Regulations 103 to 107 of the Uttar Pradesh Intermediate Education Act, 1921, to determine whether the status of “widowed daughter-in-law” should have existed at the time of the employee’s death.

As per the judgement, one Sangeeta Bajpai, an assistant teacher at Nari Shiksha Niketan Inter College in Lucknow, died in service on April 23, 2021. She is survived by her husband and her unemployed son, Nikhil Bajpai. His son’s application for compassionate appointment was rejected on April 10, 2023, on the grounds that his father was a pensioner.

The division bench of the HC dismissed the special appeal, upholding the decision of the single bench. The court held that the appellant had no right to the appointment because she was not even the daughter-in-law of the family at the time of Sangeeta Bajpai’s death.