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Shimla, Aug 11,
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ruled that the pendency of a criminal case, particularly for petty offences, cannot be a valid reason to withhold compassionate appointment already approved by the competent authority. Justice Sandeep Sharma directed the State to issue an appointment letter within four weeks to petitioner Yog Raj, whose appointment as Junior Office Assistant (IT) had been stalled due to an FIR.
The court framed the central issue as “whether compassionate appointment, duly approved by the competent authority, could have been denied to the petitioner on the ground of pendency of FIR against him or not?”
Justice Sharma observed,
“Till the time charge is not framed against the accused and he is not convicted by a competent Court of law, he is deemed to be innocent. If it is so, denial of appointment on the ground of mere pendency of FIR, that too for petty offences, may not be sustainable.”
The petitioner’s father, a Junior Basic Teacher, died in harness in 2009. In 2021, the government approved his compassionate appointment, but no appointment letter was issued owing to FIR No. 5 of 2019 under Sections 323 and 325 IPC.
The State argued that the petitioner had concealed the FIR. However, the court found no evidence of such concealment and noted that he was never asked about any pending criminal case during the process.
Citing earlier rulings including Sanjay Kumar vs State of HP (2023) and Rajinder Kumar vs HRTC (2019), Justice Sharma reiterated that:
“Mere registration of a criminal case by itself cannot be a ground for the appointing authority to deny appointment… the gravity and nature of the offence has also to be considered.”
The court also relied on the Supreme Court’s view in Avtar Singh vs Union of India (2019) that trivial cases or those where conviction is unlikely should not automatically bar employment.
Ordering the State to issue the appointment letter “expeditiously, preferably within four weeks,” Justice Sharma clarified that the petitioner’s continuance in service would depend on the outcome of the criminal trial.
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