Scheme for compassionate appointment – Review of Relative Merit Points and Procedure for selection: DOP

Scheme for compassionate appointment – Review of Relative Merit Points and Procedure for selection: Department of Posts Order dated 23.03.2022

No.17-1/2022-SPG-II
Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Posts
Dak Bhavan. Parliament Street
New Delhi-110001

Dated the 23 March, 2022

To
1. All Chief Postmasters General / Postmasters General :
2. Chief General Manager. BD Directorate / Parcel Directorate / PL] Directorate
3. Director. RAKNPA / CGM. CEPT / Directors of all PTCs
4 Addl. Director General, Army Postal Service, New Delhi
5. All General Managers (Finance) / Directors Postal Accounts / DDAP

Subject: Scheme for compassionate appointment — Review of Relative Merit Points and Procedure for selection.

Madam/Sir,

Letter No.17-4/2018-SPG-II dated 28.09.2020 providing for Revised Relative Merit Points System (RMPS) and procedure for compassionate appointments in the Department of Posts may please be referred to. The matter has been reviewed keeping in view the references received from various stakeholders including Circles and instructions contained in DOP&T OM No.43019/9/2019-Estt.(D) dated 23.08.2021.

2. The Relative Merit Points for assigning weightage to various attributes of the applicants for compassionate appointment have been reviewed. The revised RMP is based on 100 points of 10 variables with provision of additional 15 maximum bonus points for the applicant if she is the widow of the deceased employee/wife of an employee who has retired on medical grounds. The new RMPS is given in Annexure.

3. Cutoff date for working out the indigency of the dependent family of the deceased employee: Date of death or date of retirement on medical grounds will be considered as cutoff date for the purpose of assessing the indigent condition of the applicant under RMPS for compassionate appointment.

4. Cases to be considered by CRC: All the cases of death/retirement on medical grounds which occur till 31st December will be considered alongwith cases ‘referred by previous CRC for consideration by next CRC’. For example. CRC scheduled in 2022 (for vacancy year 2021), will consider all cases of death/retirement on medical grounds till 31st Dec 2021 along with ‘referred cases of previous CRC of vacancy year 2020’.

The CRC for vacancies of different years will be conducted separately in a manner that CRC for earliest year is conducted first and CRC for latest year is conducted last.

5. Rejection of case: Each case should be considered three times continuously in a row and if a case is not recommended in third consideration depending upon RMPS of the case, the CRC which is considering the case third time, shall reject the case. Past applications which were not categorically rejected by previous CRCs and have not been considered 3 times by CRCs, shall be considered again (till completion of 3 times consideration) where CRC shall categorically recommend any of the remarks:

(a) Recommended for appointment on compassionate grounds
(b) Not recommended for appointment due to paucity of vacancies in current year. To be considered by next CRC
(c) Rejected

Once an application has been recommended for rejection by the CRC and recommendation accepted by the competent authority which, after due consideration of all facts and circumstances of the case, did not find merit in the case, the candidature of the applicant shall not be considered again except under explicit direction of the court or discovery of new facts or material which was either not in the knowledge of the applicant or the applicant was prevented to produce the same on account of some sufficient cause.

6. Recommendations as ‘Trainee’: The recommendations related to ‘Trainee’ should be restricted to Multi Tasking Staff cadre only.

7. Age of case: The time gap between date of death/retirement on medical grounds and date of application shall be taken as ‘age of the case’. In case, there is no dependent family members eligible to apply for compassionate appointment solely on the grounds of age (all dependents being minor), time gap between the date on which any dependent becomes major (irrespective of fact whether the same dependent is the applicant or not) and date of application shall be taken as ‘age of the case’. This will have no link with date of meeting of CRC or vacancy years against which the application is being considered. This formula shall be applied only for calculation of RMP for immediate relief.

8. Belated cases: Currently, cases which are more than 5 years old, are termed as belated case. The time gap of 5 years will be continued to categorize a case as belated case. This 5 year period will be counted strictly from the date of death/retirement on medical grounds upto the date of application irrespective of all dependents being minor at the time of death/retirement on medical grounds of the employee.

9. Missing person cases: In case of missing person, application will be accepted only after two years of date of report of missing of official as mentioned in FIR. All the condition related to compassionate appointment to dependent of missing official as prescribed by DOP&T should be ensured.

10. Circle specific vacancy: The vacancies to be utilized by a Circle for compassionate appointment in a year should not be more than 5% of the vacancies in Direct Recruitment Quota in Group C Posts in a year. The Circles will utilize 100% quota earmarked for appointment on compassionate grounds of a vacancy year. In case no eligible candidate is available, the left over vacancies will be added to DR vacancies of next year. The vacancies arising in PAOs, Civil/Electrical wing shall also be taken into consideration.

11. Crucial date of eligibility: Crucial date for age limit and educational qualification shall be the date of application. In case, any applicant upgrades his/her educational qualification, he/she will be free to continue with old educational qualification or to withdraw old application and submit application afresh with revised educational qualification. If the applicant withdraws old application and submit application afresh with revised educational qualification, the various parameters applicable with regard to date of application for considering compassionate appointment will be applied as on date of fresh application. If an applicant has crossed maximum age limit prescribed for a post to which he is being considered for appointment on compassionate grounds, as on the date of application, age relaxation will be required in the case. The lower age limit should, however, in no case be relaxed below 18 years of age as on the date of application.

12. Place of Posting: As far as administratively feasible, applicant appointed on compassionate grounds will be posted at a place as per preference indicated or near his/her home town or in same division in which the applicant is residing, subject to availability of vacancies.

13. CRC meeting schedule: In all cases of death/retirement on medical grounds upto 31st December, cutoff date for receipt of application shall be 31st January of the following year for consideration of application for the CRC meeting scheduled during April of the following year. For example, for deaths/retirements on medical grounds upto 31st December, 2021 and receipt of application upto 31st January 2022, CRC should consider such cases against vacancy year of 2021 in its meeting which shall be scheduled during April, 2022. In case no application is submitted by dependents of the deceased/retired on medical grounds employee, a letter from the dependent family members stating reasons for non-submission of application or report from Divisional Head (in case family refuse to give such letter) shall be placed before the CRC.

14. Date of effect of these guidelines: These revised guidelines will be applicable with immediate effect and all the CRC meets after issue of this OM shall follow the revised guidelines.

15. Instructions issued by DoPT from time to time related to compassionate appointment will continue to be guiding factor while deciding the cases.

16. This issues with the approval of Competent Authority.

(Vinayak Mishra)
Assistant Director General (SPG)

Source: DOP