Compassionate Appointment Application Pending

Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.

Sunita's father died in harness as a clerk in a Madhya Pradesh government office in March 2024. The family applied for compassionate appointment within two months, attached the death certificate, the dependency affidavit and her marksheets, and then waited. Two years passed. The office said only that the file was “with the committee”. She did not know her rank on the waitlist, her relative merit score, or whether the post was even available. This is the heart of the problem. The delay is rarely a flat refusal. It is silence about where you stand.

Direct answer: A compassionate appointment is not a right that follows automatically from a death in service. It is a concession, granted against a strict ceiling of 5 per cent of direct-recruitment vacancies, to relieve a family in immediate financial distress. Most families are kept waiting because they never ask for two specific things in writing: their current position on the compassionate waitlist, and the relative merit points the committee scored them on. A public authority holds both. You can obtain them through RTI. Once you know your rank and score, you can see whether the delay is genuine queue pressure or a file lying unattended.

For central government posts, the framework is the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) scheme on compassionate appointment, last consolidated by Office Memorandum. State governments run parallel schemes through their General Administration or Finance departments. Three features matter for a pending case.

• The 5 per cent ceiling. Appointments cannot exceed 5 per cent of direct-recruitment vacancies in Group C and erstwhile Group D posts. When vacancies are few, the queue moves slowly. This is a real constraint, not an excuse, but you are entitled to know how it applies to you.
• Relative merit, not first-come-first-served. Most schemes score each applicant on a points system covering family income, number of dependants, assets, the deceased's service length and dues already received. The committee ranks applicants and clears them in merit order, not in the order they applied.
• The committee meets periodically. A screening or scrutiny committee considers cases in batches. If it has not met, your file sits regardless of merit.

Send a dated representation to the establishment or administration section, not a phone call. Ask for four things: your application's current status, whether the screening committee has considered it, your relative merit points if scored, and the next expected committee date. Keep the acknowledgement. Give them three to four weeks.

The department, public sector undertaking or bank that employed the deceased is a public authority. Once the written representation is ignored or answered vaguely, file an RTI. Ask narrow, answerable questions.

To, The Public Information Officer
[Name of department / office / PSU / bank]

Subject: Information under the RTI Act, 2005 on a pending compassionate
appointment application

Reference: Application of [applicant name], dependent of Late [employee
name], [designation], who expired in service on [date]. Application dated
[date], diary/receipt number [.....].

Please provide:
1. The present status of the above application and the section holding it.
2. Whether the screening / scrutiny committee has considered the
   application, with the date of the meeting and a copy of the minutes
   relating to my case.
3. The relative merit points / score assigned to the applicant and the
   factors on which they were computed.
4. My current serial position on the compassionate appointment waitlist,
   and the total number of applicants ahead of me.
5. The number of compassionate vacancies available against the 5 per cent
   ceiling for the relevant year and the number filled.
6. The reasons recorded on file for the delay, if any.

I am [enclosing the prescribed fee / a BPL applicant seeking fee exemption].
[Name, address, mobile, email, date]

The PIO must reply within 30 days. If no reply comes, or it dodges the questions, file a first appeal. See how to file RTI online and first and second appeals.

Sunita filed the RTI above. The reply showed her relative merit score was 62 out of 100, that she stood at serial 7 on the district waitlist, and that the committee had last met 14 months earlier. With that, she did two things. She wrote to the head of department citing the committee's long inactivity and asked for an early meeting. She also corrected one factor. The committee had counted family pension as monthly income at a figure higher than the actual credit, which had pushed her score down. She attached the bank statement and sought rescoring. Knowing the rank and the score turned a hopeless wait into two precise, fixable asks.

Some applicants are told the financial condition is “not indigent” or that no post is available. Ask for the recorded reasons. If you believe the income or asset assessment is wrong, seek a review with documents. Where a central government order is involved and the refusal seems arbitrary, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) hears service matters; for state employees, the State Administrative Tribunal or the High Court. A delay of years without a committee decision is itself a ground that a tribunal can examine. Take legal advice before filing, and watch the limitation period.

• Treating it as automatic. No scheme guarantees a job on a death in service. It is a means-tested concession against a vacancy ceiling.
• Letting the dependant's age cross the limit. Many schemes require the candidate to be within the age bar at the time of consideration. Long delays can defeat the claim. Press for a decision in writing.
• Never asking for the merit score. Without it you cannot challenge a wrong income or dependant count.
• Switching the applicant midway. If the eligible dependant changes, the file often restarts. Decide early who applies.

No. Courts have repeatedly held it is a concession to tide a family over a sudden crisis, not a vested right or an alternative to normal recruitment. It is granted within the 5 per cent ceiling and the scheme's conditions.

Ask the employing office in writing, and if that fails, file an RTI for your serial number and the count of applicants ahead of you. A public employer must hold this list.

In several schemes the committee weighs the family's monthly income, which includes family pension, against a threshold. A higher income can lower the indigence score. Make sure the committee used the correct, actual figures.

Obtain the last meeting date through RTI, then write to the head of department seeking an early meeting and citing the prejudice from delay. Persistent inaction can be raised before the administrative tribunal or High Court.

No. RTI covers public authorities. A private employer's compassionate policy is contractual, pursued through the company's HR and, if needed, the labour authority or civil court, not RTI.

Ask for the diary or receipt number of your application. If it was not recorded, resubmit by registered post or the official portal so a dated acknowledgement exists, then track it.

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Download the compassionate appointment status and waitlist checklist (PDF).