Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the Union government to grant a compassionate appointment as a head constable to the wife of a CRPF constable who was permanently disabled in a 2007 terrorist bomb blast in Srinagar and later removed from service.
Quoting George Orwell, a division bench comprising Justices Dixit Krishna Shripad and Chittaranjan Dash observed, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to suffer violence on their behalf.”
The bench said soldiers protect the nation’s borders with the belief that if anything happens to their life or limb, the state and civil society would come forward to provide succour to their families, and that this belief “should not be shaken”.
While upholding an earlier order passed by a single-judge bench of the court, the division bench made strong observations on the duty of the state towards injured defence personnel and their families.
Justice Dixit, who authored the verdict, said a society that does not hold defence personnel in high esteem “will do a disservice to itself”, warning that national security itself would be imperilled if those guarding the country are not respected and adequately supported.
The case relates to a CRPF constable who suffered permanent disability in a bomb blast triggered by terrorists on January 23, 2007, while on duty in Srinagar.
He was sent home on medical grounds March 7, 2014, and was later removed from service in 2024. Since then, the couple has been engaged in prolonged litigation seeking a compassionate appointment for the wife.
The matter has come before the high court on three earlier occasions – in 2014, 2015 and 2020 – followed by the present appeal.
Noting that the couple had been “fighting the legal battle one after another, although with successive victories on an instalment basis”, the division bench said in “these tough times, when blood is cheaper than bread”, they had been subjected to untold hardship for years.
The bench criticised the government’s handling of the case, observing that the approach was “akin to the bureaucratic approach of the Colonial era, long gone by after the advent of the Constitution (in 1950)”.
Referring to Article 41 of the Constitution, the HC said the state is obliged to provide public assistance in cases of unemployment arising from medical invalidity of a serving employee.
Holding that compassionate appointment schemes must be liberally construed in favour of claimants in defence services, the HC said the decision to offer only the post of constable, instead of head constable, did not reflect such a liberal approach.
The HC directed that a compassionate appointment as head constable be granted within the stipulated time, warning that any delay would automatically attract exemplary costs of Rs 50,000, recoverable from the erring officials.
PTI