Calcutta High Court: A Division Bench comprising of Debasish Kar Gupta and Shampa Sarkar, JJ. dismissed the petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution due to inordinate delay in filing the application thereunder.
Father of the petitioner was working for gain as a temporary employee with Respondent 3. He died in harness in 1986. The petitioner was a minor, 11 years old, at the relevant time. After four years of attaining majority, the petitioner submitted an application to Respondent 3 for appointment on compassionate grounds. However, the application was rejected and further, the appeal filed before the Administrative Tribunal was also dismissed on grounds of inordinate delay. The petitioner challenged the decision of the Tribunal in the instant petition.
The High Court perused the record and found that the petitioner was a minor at the relevant time. The Court held it to be settled law that a minor had no vested right to claim appointment at the time of the death of his father in harness. The Court also took notice of unexplained inordinate delay of over four years in submitting the application for appointment even after attaining majority. The High Court found no fault with the impugned decision of the Administrative Tribunal. Thus, the petition was dismissed. [Kamal Adhikari v. State of W.B., 2018 SCC OnLine Cal 3394, dated 04-06-2018]
