A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court comprising Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice J Uma Devi on Thursday wanted the Telangana government and the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. to explain the rationale behind the decision to fill thousands of vacancies on compassionate grounds.
The bench was dealing with a case filed by Satish Kumar, an unemployed youth. He challenged the circular issued by the SCCL on Dec 12, 2016, to provide employment to dependent persons of the employees on compassionate grounds under the voluntary retirement scheme.
The bench was told that the SCCL had issued the impugned circular to provide employment to about 30,000 dependent persons on compassionate grounds. Accordingly, 80% of the total staff of about 45,000 are made eligible for the scheme. S. Satyam Reddy, senior counsel, appearing for the petitioner, said the employees working underground were induced to take voluntary retirement and that their dependents were sought to be employed under the scheme. The bench expressed surprise at the large number of posts offered under the scheme. The case is listed for March 6 for counter-affidavit and arguments.
