Mollika Begum Laskar v. The State of Assam and 5 Ors

ORDER Date : 16-10-2023 Heard Mr. R.A. Choudhury, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Ms. S. Chutia, learned counsel for the Elementary Education Department of Government of Assam and Mr. P. Saikia, learned Junior Government Advocate for the Deputy Commissioner, Hailakandi.

¶2The husband of the petitioner Rafique Jamal Laskar who was an Assistant Page No.# 3/4 Teacher in the Sharaspur Pahartali L.P. School in the Hailakandi district died in harness on 19.07.2010 and on his death the petitioner submitted an application for compassionate appointment on 13.09.2010. As the application of the petitioner was not given its consideration, WP(C)No. 7563/2013 was instituted which was given a final consideration by the order dated 03.01.2014 requiring the application to be placed before the concerned authority as per law meaning thereby before the concerned DLC of district concerned.

¶3The order impugned dated 11.10.2021 by the Deputy Commissioner, Hailakandi shows that the application was placed before the DLC in its meeting of 05.10.2021 but was rejected on the ground that the employee died on

19.07.2010 and the application was made on 20.08.2011 i.e. after a period of one year.

¶4It is noticed that the Annexure-3 to the writ petition shows that the application is dated 13.09.2010 and it is well within the period of the date of death. No relevant material is available as to what application was considered by the DLC in order to be recorded that the application is dated 20.08.2011 and therefore, liable to be rejected on the ground of being submitted after the period of one year.

¶5Without going to the said question, we have noticed that in the earlier proceeding the said stand was not taken by the respondents and there is a direction of the Court to place the application to be considered on its own merit. From such point of view, the DLC would be precluded from rejecting the application by taking a stand that it was submitted after a period of one year. Moreover, it is no longer a res-integra that the requirement to submit an application within one year is a directive requirement and not a mandatory requirement and it by itself cannot be a reason to reject an application. Page No.# 4/4

¶6Considering both the aspects, the rejection by the DLC in its meeting of

05.10.2021 is set aside and remanded back to the DLC to consider the application of the petitioner of compassionate appointment on its own merit and as per law, to be placed before the next available DLC.

Writ petition stands disposed of in the above terms.

JUDGE Comparing Assistant

PageoNo.#o1/4 GAHC010112892022 ooooooo ooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooTHEoGAUHATIoHIGHoCOURTo (HIGHoCOURToOFoASSAM,oNAGALAND,oMIZORAMoANDoARUNACHALoPRADESH)o CaseoNo.o:oWP(C)/3924/2022o MOLLIKAoBEGUMoLASKARo W/O-oLATEoRAFIQUEoJAMALoLASKAR,o VILL-oBHATIRKUPAoPARToIII,o P.O-oBHATIRKUPA,oPIN-788152,o P.SoANDoDIST-oHAILAKANDI VERSUSo THEoSTATEoOFoASSAMoANDo5oORSo REP.oBYoTHEoCOMMISSIONERoANDoSECRETARYoTOoTHEoGOVT.oOFoASSAM,o EDUCATIONo(ELEMENTARY)oDEPARTMENTo oDISPUR,oGUWAHATI-781006 2:THEoDIRECTOR oOFoELEMENTARYoEDUCATION oASSAMo oKAHILIPARA oGUWAHATI-781019 3:THEoDEPUTYoCOMMISSIONER oHAILAKANDIoCUMoCHAIRMANOFoTHEoDISTRICToLEVELoCOMMITTEE oHAILAKANDI o P.O oP.S oANDoDIST-oHAILAKANDI o PIN-788151 4:THEoDISTRICToELEMENTARYoEDUCATIONoOFFICER oHAILAKANDI o Page No.# 2/4 P.O P.S AND DIST- HAILAKANDI PIN-788151 5:THE DEPUTY INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS HAILAKANDI P.O P.S AND DIST- HAILAKANDI PIN-788151 6:THE DISTRICT LEVEL COMMITTEE HAILAKANDI TO BE PRESENTED BY ITS CHAIRMAN (DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HAILAKANDI) P.O P.S AND DIST- HAILAKANDI PIN-78815 Advocate for the Petitioner : MR. R A CHOUDHURY Advocate for the Respondent : SC, ELEM. EDU BEFORE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ACHINTYA MALLA BUJOR BARUA