Lost a Parent or Spouse in Service and the Compassionate Job Was Refused

What the scheme gives, and what it does not

The DoPT scheme of 16 January 2013 consolidates earlier instructions on compassionate appointment for ministries, departments and their attached and subordinate offices. Its purpose is narrow: to give one member of a family a Group C job when the death or medical retirement of the earning member leaves that family unable to manage. The Supreme Court in Umesh Kumar Nagpal v. State of Haryana (1994) described it as a way to tide over a sudden crisis, not a form of inheritance.

Two consequences follow. A family that is reasonably well placed, even if grieving, may lawfully be refused. And a family in real need is entitled to have its case assessed fairly, on the scheme's own terms, within a reasonable time. Most disputes that reach the tribunal are about the second: how the need was measured, whether the right rules were applied and how long the department took.

The scheme does not entitle anyone to a particular post, to a Group A or B post, or to an appointment for a second family member. It is for posts in the direct recruitment quota of Group C, and within that, only up to 5 per cent of vacancies.

Who can apply

• The employee. A central government servant who died in service, or who retired on medical grounds before reaching 55 (57 for the erstwhile Group D). Families of armed forces personnel who died in service or were boarded out medically are also covered for civil posts under the defence ministry. Medical retirement is a recurring point of dispute; see our page on retirement on medical grounds.
• The dependant. Spouse, son or daughter (including adopted children), and in the case of an unmarried employee, a brother or sister. The person must have been wholly dependent on the employee at the time of death or retirement.
• Age and qualification. The applicant must be at least 18 at the time of application. The upper age limit can be relaxed where needed. Educational qualifications for the post apply, though a widow can be appointed as Multi Tasking Staff without the usual qualification if she can learn the work on the job.
• One appointment per family. If another family member is already in regular government employment, the department will ask whether the family is really in distress, and that member's income usually counts.

Why applications are refused, and how each reason is tested

Refusals fall into a few groups. The department may say the family is not in financial distress. It may say the applicant scored fewer relative merit points than others in the same year. It may say there was no vacancy within the 5 per cent ceiling. It may say the applicant is not a dependant, or not qualified, or applied too late. Or it may simply not decide at all.

Each reason has its own test. Distress must be judged on a balanced look at assets and liabilities, not on the bare fact of family pension. Merit points must be worked out on the department's published table, with each figure taken from the family's actual papers. The ceiling depends on the number of direct recruitment vacancies in Group C for that year, which the department can be asked to disclose. Dependency is a question of fact. And delay, beyond a point, is itself unfair.

Advocate B.K. Singh's first request in a compassionate case is the committee's assessment sheet, the page on which the points or the financial condition were recorded. Most refusal letters are two lines long. The sheet shows the figures behind those lines, and errors in it (pension counted twice, a loan ignored, an unmarried daughter missed) are common.

Family pension and terminal benefits: not a reason on their own

The most common refusal says the family receives family pension, received gratuity and leave encashment, and is therefore not indigent. Paragraph 18(c) of the 2013 scheme says an application should not be rejected merely because the family has received welfare and terminal benefits; the committee must make a balanced and objective assessment of the family's financial condition, taking into account its assets and liabilities, the number of dependants, the remaining length of the deceased's service and similar factors.

So a refusal that rests only on the family pension amount, without looking at loans, education costs, medical expenses, unmarried daughters, or the many years of salary lost, can be challenged. On the other hand, where the family's income and property are substantial, the department is entitled to refuse, and the tribunal will not replace the committee's view with its own if the committee actually looked at the facts.

Our guide on whether family pension can defeat a compassionate claim discusses this further.

Relative merit points

Because more families apply than there are posts, ministries rank applicants using a relative merit point system, usually out of 100. The Ministry of Defence, the Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Posts, among others, have published their own tables. Typical factors are the family pension amount, lump-sum terminal benefits, other monthly income, movable and immovable property, the number of dependants, unmarried daughters, minor children and the deceased's remaining years of service. Some systems add points for applicants who have lost both parents, for a widow applying herself, or for disability in the family.

The Ministry of Defence issued revised guidelines in 2026, reported in May 2026, which also award points by the time elapsed since the death and set out tie-breakers. If your case is with a defence organisation, check whether the old or new table was used for your year; cases already considered under earlier guidelines were not to be reopened under the new ones.

Ask for your points, item by item, and compare each with your papers. A wrong family pension figure, assets counted at the wrong value, or a minor child left out can change the ranking. Our guide on how families are ranked by merit points has worked examples.

The 5 per cent ceiling and the waiting list

Compassionate appointments may be made up to 5 per cent of the vacancies in Group C falling under the direct recruitment quota. In a small office, that can mean one post every few years. Families are told that their case is 'deserving' but no vacancy is available, and then hear nothing more.

The scheme says applications are to be considered without any time limit, subject to vacancies, which DoPT adopted in 2012 after removing an earlier three-year limit. That means a deserving case that missed out because of the ceiling should be considered again when vacancies arise, rather than closed. Ask in writing how many direct recruitment vacancies arose in each year, how many compassionate appointments were made, and where your case stands. An RTI application can get the numbers if the department does not answer.

The tribunal cannot create a post or lift the ceiling. What it can do is direct the department to consider the case again in the next meetings, on correct figures, and with reasons. See why compassionate applications wait under the 5 per cent ceiling.

Old deaths, late applications and the employee who went missing

Families often apply late for understandable reasons. The widow was unwell, the children were too young, or nobody told them the scheme existed. The 2013 scheme allows belated requests to be considered, but they are examined more carefully and decided at Secretary level, because the longer a family has managed, the harder it is to say the crisis is still there. If you are applying many years after the death, explain the gap honestly and show the family's present condition with documents.

Where the dependant was a minor at the time of death, departments look at when the child turned 18 and how soon after that the application came. A request made soon after reaching majority, with the family's situation unchanged or worse, is far better placed than one made a decade later.

The scheme also has a separate clause for families of employees who have gone missing, with conditions about the police report and the time that has passed since the disappearance. These cases need the FIR, the police's report that the person could not be traced, and the department's own record of when the employee stopped attending.

When family members disagree

Only one person in a family is appointed, so departments ask for no-objection statements from other dependants. Disputes arise between a widow and an adult son, between children of two marriages, or between parents and a daughter-in-law. A department faced with competing claims often does nothing, and the delay hurts everyone.

Settle it inside the family if you possibly can, and put the arrangement in sworn affidavits from each adult member, with the undertaking to maintain the others. Where agreement is impossible, the department must still decide who is the eligible dependant under the scheme, and a refusal to decide at all can be taken to the tribunal. Questions about who is the legal widow, or whether a child is legitimate, may need a civil court's decision first, and the tribunal will usually not decide them itself.

Advocate B.K. Singh's advice in these families is usually practical: the appointment is meant to support everyone, and a written arrangement about how the salary will help the others removes the department's excuse for delay.

Rules and decisions that apply

Railways, Posts, GDS and defence civilians

Not every central employer follows the DoPT scheme word for word. The Railways have their own compassionate appointment instructions issued by the Railway Board, which differ from DoPT's on points such as vacancy limits and the time within which a request should be made; check the current Railway Board master circular before relying on the DoPT text. Railway cases still go to the tribunal; see our page on railway service matters.

The Department of Posts applies a merit point system to compassionate appointments of regular employees' dependants, and runs a separate scheme for compassionate engagement of Gramin Dak Sevaks' dependants with its own points and conditions. GDS cases are heard by the tribunal; our page on postal employees and Gramin Dak Sevaks has more.

Defence civilian employees (Military Engineer Services, ordnance depots, army and air force civilian units) fall under the Ministry of Defence guidelines and go to the tribunal, not the Armed Forces Tribunal. Families of soldiers, sailors and airmen seeking civil posts under the ministry are also covered by the scheme.

Public sector banks, PSUs and CAPFs run their own schemes, and disputes go to the High Court; see CAPF, PSU and bank staff. State government employees' families go to the State Administrative Tribunal where one exists, or the High Court.

From refusal to a decision you can live with

1. Get the full record

   Ask the department, in writing, for the committee minutes relating to your case, your merit point sheet, and the number of vacancies considered. If there is no reply in a few weeks, file an RTI application for your own case papers.

2. Check every figure

   Compare the family pension, terminal benefits, income, property and dependants on the sheet with your own records. Mark each error clearly.

3. Write one reasoned representation

   Address it to the competent authority named in the refusal, through the office where the deceased served. Point out each error, attach the correcting document, and ask that the case be placed again before the committee. The proper channel matters in government; a copy direct to the head of department is fine.

4. Allow a reasonable time

   Under Section 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, the tribunal ordinarily expects departmental remedies to be tried. If six months pass without a decision, you can file even without a reply.

5. File the OA

   The OA asks the tribunal to set aside the refusal and direct a fresh, reasoned consideration on correct figures within a fixed time. Where a department has sat on a case for years, it asks for a time-bound decision.

Our page on the representation Section 20 expects explains how to write it so that it also serves your later case.

Papers the family should collect

• Death certificate, or the medical board's report and the order retiring the employee on medical grounds
• The deceased's last pay slip, service book extract and appointment letter
• Family pension PPO and the sanction of gratuity, leave encashment, GPF or NPS and CGEGIS payments
• Bank statements of the family for the period after the death
• Details of loans and liabilities, with lenders' statements
• Land and property records, and any rent or other income
• Proof of dependants: birth certificates, school records, marriage status of daughters, disability certificates
• Applicant's educational certificates and proof of age
• No-objection affidavits from other family members, if the department asked for them
• The application with its date of receipt, all reminders, the refusal letter and any committee minutes obtained

How long each step takes, and what it costs

Where the family files

The OA is filed in the bench within whose territory the refusal was made or the cause of action arose in part. In most cases that is the bench covering the office where the deceased last served, or the regional or headquarters office that passed the refusal. A family in Patna whose application was rejected by a ministry in Delhi may be able to choose between the Patna Bench and the Principal Bench; the choice depends on where the papers are and what is practical for the family.

Families often worry about travel. Many benches allow hearings by video link, and we work with associate counsel at benches outside Delhi, so the widow or child does not have to attend every date.

After you are appointed

A compassionate appointee is placed at the bottom of the direct recruits and promotees for that year in seniority. The appointee gives a written undertaking to maintain the other dependants, and the scheme allows the appointment to be terminated if it is later proved that they are being neglected, after a show cause notice. A request later for a higher post on compassionate grounds is to be refused; the route upwards is the normal promotion channel.

Pension can also be an issue. Compassionate appointees who joined on or after 1 January 2004 were placed in NPS. A DoPPW order of 22 June 2026 extends the old pension scheme to compassionate appointees who applied on or before 31 December 2003; check the order and its conditions. Our guide on compassionate appointment before or after 2004 explains it.

Offered a post below your qualifications

A graduate son is sometimes offered a Multi Tasking Staff post when a Lower Division Clerk post was available, or a daughter with a diploma is offered a peon's job. The scheme does not promise a post matching your qualifications; it offers a Group C post against an available vacancy, and the department chooses among the vacancies it has within the ceiling. Courts have repeatedly refused to order a better post simply because the applicant is more qualified.

There are two things you can still check. First, whether a vacancy in the higher post actually existed within the compassionate quota that year and was given to someone ranked below you. Second, whether you accepted the post under protest. Once you join without objection, a later claim for a different post is very hard. If you think you were wrongly placed, write that down before or at the time of joining, then join, because refusing the offer can end the claim altogether.

Mistakes families make

• Waiting for years for a reply. A delay of many years weakens the claim, because the department will argue the crisis has passed.
• Not declaring all income and property. The undeclared asset is usually found later, and it can end an appointment.
• Fighting within the family. Departments delay when the widow and an adult child, or two wives, both claim. Settle who will apply and give consistent no-objection affidavits.
• Accepting a refusal without seeing the points. Many refusals rest on a figure that is simply wrong.
• Asking for a higher post. The scheme is for Group C. Asking for more often delays the case without result.
• Not claiming other dues. Family pension, gratuity and pending arrears are separate claims; see our pages on family pension refused and claims pending when an employee dies.

Getting advice on your file

If a refusal has arrived, or the application has been pending for longer than a year, bring the refusal letter, the PPO, and the application to a meeting at Dwarka or Vaishali, or share them before a video call. We will tell you plainly whether the figures support a challenge.

To have your compassionate appointment papers reviewed, or to ask about changes in the scheme, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.