Illegitimate Children Entitled to Compassionate Appointment: Chhattisgarh HC

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that the illegitimate son of a deceased government employee is entitled to consideration for compassionate appointment.

The single bench court of Justice Sanjay K Agrawal has directed the South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) to process the petitioner’s claim for dependent employment within 45 days while overturning the decision by the SECL to reject the applicant’s case on the ground of illegitimacy.

The case relates to tussle over succession benefits between two widows, Sushila and Vimla, of a deceased employee of SECL, Maniram Kurre.

Vimla Kurre along with her four daughters and son (the petitioner) had successfully made an appeal to the authorities concerned to grant a succession certificate in their favour under section 372 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, after her husband’s death.

Sushila Kurre later contested it, but withdrew her application after a compromise.

The SECL, in 2015, rejected the application of the petitioner on the ground that he being the illegitimate son of the deceased employee is not entitled to consideration for compassionate employment.

The petitioner had then moved the Chhattisgarh high court challenging the decision by the SECL.

The court has overturned the decision by the SECL, citing an observation by the supreme court that children born out of second marriages are legitimate and entitled to consideration for compassionate employment.

The petitioner argued that he was entitled for employment benefits on compassionate grounds since the succession certificate was granted in his favour.

Sushila Kurre however contended that the petitioner was not entitled to benefits under succession law as he was born out of Muniram’s second marriage, which occurred during the subsistence of his first marriage with her.

It was learnt that Sushila had left her husband one and half years after their marriage and the couple have a daughter from their wedlock.

Muniram later married Vimla and the couple have four daughters and a son from their union.

“The purpose of compassionate appointment is to prevent destitution and penury in the family of a deceased employee”, the court has held while ordering the SECL to process the petitioner’s case.