The Supreme Court has upheld the Constitutional validity of appointment on compassionate grounds of the kith and kin of those government servants who seek retirement on medical invalidation.

Such appointments on 'compassionate grounds' cannot be confined only to those employees who die in harness (serving), but can also be available to others provided it does not perpetuate hereditary appointments, or is discriminatory in nature, a bench of Justices R V Raveendran and L S Panta has held.

"When compassionate appointment of a dependent of a government servant who dies in harness is accepted to be an exception to the general rule, there is no reason or justification to hold that an offer of compassionate appointment to the dependent of a government servant who is medically invalidated, is not an exception to the general rule," the apex court said.

The apex court passed the judgement while quashing the ruling of a Full Bench of the Andhra Pradesh high court which struck down such appointments made by the state government under a policy as being violative of the Constitution and discriminatory in nature.

The apex court said such appointments are neither violative of Article 14 (Equality before Law) nor Article 16 (Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment).

V Sivaramamurthy and some of the aggrieved persons had filed the SLP in the apex court challenging the Full Bench's ruling.