‘Consider woman’s plea for job’

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Madurai Collector to reconsider the woman’s representation seeking appointment under compassionate grounds.

It was hearing K. Ilayarani’s petition. Her father V. Kallanai, a village assistant in the Revenue Department, died in 2011, while in service. He was survived by his wife and three children. The woman’s representation was rejected on the ground that her brother Sakthiponnusamy got a government job in 2013. His appointment was on merits and not on compassionate grounds. The petitioner said her brother was living separately and did not come to the aid of the family. She sought appointment on compassionate grounds to make ends meet.

Justice R. Suresh Kumar directed the Collector to reconsider her representation based on her educational qualification.

The court relying on two government orders observed that the orders did not restrain or prohibit the Collector from considering the candidature of a legal heir for appointment on compassionate grounds merely because another legal heir had a government job. The Collector can consider appointment of other legal heir if already a legal heir, who is in a government job, was not lending a helping hand to the family.