New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) The Central Information Commission (CIC) has flagged serious transparency and governance gaps in the way compassionate appointments are handled across government departments, warning that opaque decision-making and poorly defined policies are fuelling disputes, litigation and a steady rise in RTI applications nationwide.
In an order with wider implications for public administration, the Commission directed the Central GST and Central Excise Department in Lucknow to disclose screening committee records in a compassionate appointment case, stressing that secrecy around such processes undermines accountability.
Information Commissioner Vinod Kumar Tiwari observed that once a department admits that a case has been examined by a departmental screening committee (DSC), records of that exercise fall squarely within the scope of the RTI Act.
“Once it is admitted that the appellant’s case was considered by the Departmental Screening Committee, the records pertaining to such consideration, including the minutes of the meeting and the merit-list drawn based on the marking system, constitute ‘information’ under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act,” the Commission said.
The CIC said departments cannot meet transparency obligations by offering vague replies. “Merely stating that the appellant was considered and not recommended, without disclosing the relevant records, particularly the merit-list, does not fully satisfy the mandate of transparency under the RTI Act,” it added.
The Commission noted that compassionate appointments, intended as an exception to the normal recruitment process, have increasingly become a source of contention due to a lack of clear criteria, inconsistent assessments and non-disclosure of records.
This opacity, it said, “prevents applicants from understanding the decision-making process” and weakens trust in public institutions.
While acknowledging concerns over third-party personal information, the CIC underlined that appointments made through concessional routes in public offices must withstand public scrutiny. It pointed out that “even for jobs offered on fair and transparent competitive exams, disclosure of category-wise merit list has been upheld” by courts, reinforcing the principle that transparency cannot be diluted merely because an appointment is compassionate in nature.
The Commission directed the department to provide certified copies of the minutes of DSC meetings, including the merit list drawn on marks awarded for various parameters, limited to the applicant’s case, within three weeks.
Taking a broader national view, the CIC also cautioned against what it described as a “general perception among applicants that compassionate appointment is a matter of right”.
“Compassionate appointment is not a vested right but an exception to the normal recruitment process,” the Commission said, adding that it is meant only to provide “immediate relief to the family of a deceased employee left in indigent circumstances”.
The order highlighted that the absence of “clear and unambiguous” policies governing compassionate appointments often leads to “avoidable grievances, prolonged correspondence and multiple RTI applications seeking explanations rather than specific records”.
Invoking its advisory powers under Section 25(5) of the RTI Act, Tiwari asked departments to review and revise their compassionate appointment policies by learning from best practices elsewhere. He cited the Himachal Pradesh government’s policy, saying it follows a structured, point-based assessment of indigence as a model that “balances compassion with fairness, transparency and administrative discipline”.
The Commission said clearer rules and proactive disclosure would strengthen overall governance, reduce discretionary decision-making and significantly cut down on RTI-driven disputes in compassionate appointment cases. PTI MHS MHS KSS KSS
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