Court comes to watchmans rescue

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has come to the rescue of a watchman who was dismissed from service after working at the government Training Institute in Chengalpattu for seven years.Justice D Harparanthaman accepted M Ganesan’s plea and set aside the termination order issued by the principal of the institute.Ganeshan was appointed as watchman in December 1994 under compassionate grounds following the death of his father in May 1975.Though Ganeshan was appointed based on a letter from the Director of Employment and Training, the institute’s principal terminated his services in June, 2001 on the ground that he was appointed 20 years after death of his father and his brother had been already employed.The judge said that compassionate appointment was made in terms of the existing scheme and therefore, the petitioner could not be blamed for his appointment after 20 years, particularly when the government made so many appointments without reference to limitation.Just because the petitioner’s brother was in employment before the death, it could not be presumed that the family was not in indigent circumstances, the judge said.The principal cannot set aside the appointment on the ground that the petitioner’s family was not in indigent circumstances, the judge added and set aside the dismissal order.