In short. The compassionate appointment 5 percent rule means a central department can give compassionate jobs only against up to 5 per cent of the Group C vacancies it fills by direct recruitment in a year. This guide is for families told 'your case is deserving but no vacancy is available within the ceiling'. The committee usually sits once a year, so a wait of one to three cycles is common. Your next step is to ask for the department's vacancy working for each year your case was considered, and check whether the count was done correctly.
Is this your situation?
- A parent or spouse who was a central government employee died in service or retired on medical grounds.
- You applied for a compassionate job and the committee called your case deserving.
- The reply says no vacancy is available within the 5 per cent ceiling.
- Your case has been carried forward for one, two or more years without an offer.
- You have heard that another family with a later death got a post first.
- You were offered nothing, or a post far below your qualification, and want to know if that is lawful.
- You received a letter saying your case is closed and are unsure whether it can be reopened.
In short
- The ceiling is arithmetic, not a judgment on your family. A department may fill only up to 5 per cent of its Group C direct recruitment vacancies of a year by compassionate appointment, so deserving cases can wait for want of a slot.
- The count can be wrong. Ask for the year-wise vacancy working before you accept a compassionate appointment refusal, because errors in which posts were counted, how fractions were rounded and whether posts were held back are common.
- There is no fixed time limit now. The old three-year cut-off was waived, so a deserving case should be carried forward and placed before the committee again each year.
- There is also no waiting list against future vacancies. Each year's committee works only with that year's slots and that year's applicants, and your rank can change.
- Courts rarely set aside the ceiling itself. What they do correct is a wrong count, a skipped consideration or an unexplained preference for another family.
- Write within weeks, not years. Delay in challenging a rejection weakens the claim, because the scheme exists for immediate hardship.
What the compassionate appointment 5 percent rule actually says
The scheme now in force for central ministries and departments is the consolidated DoPT scheme issued by Office Memorandum No. 14014/02/2012-Estt.(D) dated 16 January 2013. It allows compassionate appointment only to Group C posts, and Group C here includes the posts that were earlier called Group D, such as Multi Tasking Staff. The appointment can be made up to a maximum of 5 per cent of the vacancies falling under the direct recruitment quota of those posts.
Three words in that sentence carry most of the weight. 'Group C' means Group A and Group B posts are outside the scheme, whatever the applicant's degree. 'Direct recruitment quota' means vacancies kept for promotion, deputation or absorption do not count. 'Vacancies' means real vacancies of the recruitment year that the department is actually going to fill, not sanctioned strength on paper.
The scheme also tells the appointing authority that it may hold back up to 5 per cent of those direct recruitment vacancies, instead of reporting all of them to the Staff Selection Commission or another recruiting agency. Once a vacancy has gone to the SSC and been filled from its list, it cannot later be used for a widow or son waiting in the same office. That is why the timing of the hold-back matters so much in practice.
A compassionate appointee is fitted into the reservation roster against the category to which he or she belongs, so an SC, ST, OBC, EWS or unreserved applicant takes the roster point of that category. This sometimes surprises families, but it does not reduce the 5 per cent pool. It only decides which roster point the appointment is shown against.
Why a deserving family can still wait for years
Most departments receive many more applications each year than the ceiling can absorb. A regional office that fills thirty Level 1 posts through the SSC in a year generates one or two compassionate slots. If eight families are pending, the committee ranks them and the top one or two get offers. The others are told their cases are deserving but must wait.
Departments rank families by relative need. Many use a points scale for family income, terminal benefits, number and age of dependants, left-over service of the deceased and similar factors. How that ranking works, and how errors in it can be corrected, is explained in our guide on compassionate appointment merit points. The ceiling decides how many families can be helped; the points decide which ones.
The waiting is also a result of how the ceiling interacts with recruitment plans. In a year when a department freezes direct recruitment, or decides to fill posts by promotion instead, the 5 per cent figure shrinks. In a year of heavy recruitment, it grows. Families often read a long silence as a decision against them, when the real reason is that the office simply had no direct recruitment that year.
None of this makes a long wait lawful in every case. A department that never counts its vacancies properly, or that lets the hold-back lapse year after year, keeps families waiting for a reason that is its own fault. That is the point at which questions should be asked in writing.
How the vacancy ceiling becomes actual posts: a made-up illustration
| Direct recruitment vacancies in the year (made-up figures) | 5 per cent of that number | Compassionate posts available | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 Multi Tasking Staff posts in one department | 3.0 | 3 | Straight 5 per cent of the year's direct recruitment quota |
| 30 Lower Division Clerk posts | 1.5 | 2 | A fraction of one half or more is taken as one full vacancy under DoPT's clarification |
| 22 Lower Division Clerk posts | 1.1 | 1 | A fraction below one half is dropped |
| Three different Group C posts with 8, 6 and 5 vacancies | 0.95 if grouped | 1 | Posts with fewer than 20 direct recruitment vacancies may be grouped; not more than one appointment in any single post |
| Small office with 4 vacancies a year for four years | 0.8 over the pooled years | 1 | A small unit that found no slot for three years may add up three or more years' vacancies, provided no compassionate appointment was made in that period |
| 40 vacancies, but all reported to the SSC | 2.0 on paper | 0 in practice | Nothing was held back, so there is nothing left to give; this is the kind of lapse worth questioning |
Reading the table against your own department
The figures above are invented, but the rules behind each row come from DoPT's clarifications on the 2013 scheme. When you get your department's working, compare it with these rows. Check the base number first: was it the direct recruitment vacancies of the year, or something smaller such as only the vacancies already notified to the SSC?
Next check the rounding. Offices sometimes ignore a fraction of 0.5 or more, which can mean one family less is helped that year. Then check whether small posts were grouped. A department that treats a post with six vacancies in isolation, finds 0.3, and calls it zero, may have missed a slot that grouping would have produced.
Last, look at whether the hold-back was actually done before the vacancies went to the recruiting agency. If the department reported every vacancy outward and then told the committee there was nothing available, the ceiling was never the real obstacle. A written query on that point, signed and dated, often produces a fuller answer than a general complaint.
Which vacancies count towards the direct recruitment quota
Only posts in the direct recruitment share of Group C cadres count. If the recruitment rules for a clerical post say 85 per cent by direct recruitment and 15 per cent by limited departmental examination, only the 85 per cent share of that year's vacancies goes into the calculation. Promotion vacancies, deputation slots and posts kept vacant under an economy or abolition order do not.
For technical Group C posts and the old Group D level, DoPT has clarified that 5 per cent is taken on the total direct recruitment vacancies arising in the year against those posts. This matters in departments such as defence production units, the Central Public Works Department and scientific organisations, where a large share of Group C posts is technical.
Compassionate appointments are kept outside the general ban orders on filling posts issued by the Department of Expenditure, as DoPT's FAQ on the scheme states. So a department cannot simply say 'there is a ban on recruitment this year' and close the matter. It still has to show how many direct recruitment vacancies existed and what was done with the 5 per cent share.
No time limit, but no waiting list either
Until 2012, an application not met within three years was closed, under a DoPT memorandum of 5 May 2003. That three-year limit was later waived. DoPT's FAQ on the scheme now says there is no time limit for compassionate appointment, and that deserving cases may be carried forward and considered again, as long as the total appointments in a year stay within 5 per cent.
The same FAQ says no waiting list is to be prepared, because no compassionate appointment can be made against a future vacancy. In plain terms, being found deserving this year does not reserve next year's slot for you. Next year's committee will look at next year's vacancies and next year's pool of families, which may include newer and harder cases.
Cases that were closed only because the old three-year limit ran out may be reopened, but only if they were closed for want of vacancies and still meet the scheme's conditions. A case closed because the family was found not to be in financial distress does not reopen just because the time limit went away. If you hold an old closure letter, its exact wording decides which group you fall in.
Long waits also have a legal edge. In Malaya Nanda Sethy (2022), the Supreme Court said compassionate applications should be decided within six months. That does not create a post where none exists, but it does mean a department cannot leave a file unanswered for years without consideration.
Group C compassionate posts: what you can and cannot be offered
Group C now means posts in Pay Levels 1 to 5 of the pay matrix, after the classification notified on 9 November 2017. A Group C compassionate offer is therefore usually for a post such as Multi Tasking Staff, Lower Division Clerk, Postman, Tradesman or a similar entry post. An applicant with a postgraduate degree cannot claim an officer's post, and courts have consistently refused such claims.
The applicant must meet the educational and other qualifications of the post offered. DoPT has allowed trainee appointments in some cases where a dependant lacks the qualification for Multi Tasking Staff, with regular appointment after the qualification is acquired; check the current instructions for your department before relying on this.
An offer below your qualification is not unlawful by itself. The purpose of the scheme is to get the family through an immediate crisis, not to give a career of choice. Families sometimes refuse an MTS post hoping for a clerical one, and then find the case closed. Accepting the offered post and later seeking advancement through normal channels is usually the safer course. A compassionate appointee's pension scheme depends on dates; see compassionate appointment and old pension.
Railways, Posts and Defence: the ceiling does not work the same everywhere
Indian Railways runs its own compassionate appointment scheme through Railway Board instructions, separate from the DoPT scheme. At the 49th meeting of the National Council (JCM) on 11 May 2026, the staff side stated that railway compassionate appointments continue without a 5 per cent ceiling and asked for the same in other departments. Treat that as the staff side's statement and check the current Railway Board circulars for your zone before relying on it.
The Department of Posts applies the DoPT ceiling but ranks families through its own relative merit points scheme of 28 September 2020, revised on 23 June 2025 (check the latest letter). Postal families often see their case considered in several annual circles before an offer comes, because the postal circle's 5 per cent pool is shared by many divisions.
In the Ministry of Defence, the shortage of slots in civilian Group C posts has been a long-running complaint of unions. At the same JCM meeting, the Chairman asked the Ministry of Defence to examine diversion of vacancies, which suggests the issue is still open. If the deceased employee also had pay or pension claims pending, those survive separately; see an employee's claim pending at death. If you are a defence civilian family, ask whether your case was considered only within one unit or across the command or directorate, since the answer changes the size of the pool.
Is the 5 per cent ceiling itself open to challenge?
Rarely. The Supreme Court has treated compassionate appointment as an exception to the rule of open recruitment under Articles 14 and 16, starting with Umesh Kumar Nagpal (1994). In Union of India v. Shashank Goswami (2012), it held that compassionate appointment is not a matter of right and that the ceiling set by the scheme cannot be ignored to accommodate an applicant.
What does succeed, case by case, is a challenge to how the ceiling was applied. A wrong base number, a missed fraction, a failure to group small posts, a hold-back that never happened, a case that was not placed before the committee at all, or a later case appointed over an earlier one without reasons: each of these is a legal defect the tribunal can correct, usually by directing fresh consideration.
The receipt of family pension or terminal benefits is a separate argument and has its own guide on whether family pension can defeat a compassionate claim. In Canara Bank v. Ajithkumar G.K. (2025), the Supreme Court said family pension is no substitute for compassionate appointment, though the family's overall means may still be weighed. Unions have asked the government to remove the ceiling, and the outcome of that demand is worth watching.
Advocate B.K. Singh's first tip: ask for the working, not the conclusion
Advocate B.K. Singh's practical advice to families is to stop asking 'why was I not appointed' and start asking 'how many direct recruitment vacancies did you have, and what was 5 per cent of that number, year by year'. A general question gets a general reply. A question about numbers forces the office to open its register.
Put the request in two forms. Write a representation through proper channel to the appointing authority, and file an RTI application to the CPIO of the same office for the vacancy statement, the hold-back order and the committee minutes for each year your case was considered. Personal information about other families may be refused under the amended Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, but the number of vacancies and the method of calculation are not personal information.
Papers to ask for when the reply says 'no vacancy within 5 per cent'
- Every letter you received about your application, with dates and file numbers.
- The death certificate or medical invalidation order, and the deceased employee's last pay slip and post.
- Your application and all documents you filed, with the receipt or acknowledgement.
- The year-wise statement of Group C direct recruitment vacancies of the office or cadre, for each year your case was pending.
- Any order holding back up to 5 per cent of direct recruitment vacancies before they were reported to the SSC or another agency.
- Minutes of the compassionate appointment committee for each year, showing how many slots were available and how many families were considered.
- The points or merit sheet for your family, if the department uses one.
- Any closure letter, with the exact reason given for closure.
From a 'no vacancy' letter to a decided claim
This is the usual order of work. Keep a copy of everything you send and the proof of delivery.
Read the last letter carefully
Note whether it says 'deserving but no vacancy', 'not found deserving' or 'closed'. Each needs a different response, and the wording also decides whether limitation has started to run against you.
Ask for the year-wise working
Send a short representation to the appointing authority and an RTI application for the vacancy statement, hold-back order and committee minutes. Ask specifically for the 5 per cent calculation for each year.
Compare the numbers with the rules
Check the base vacancies, the rounding of fractions, grouping of small posts and the timing of the hold-back. Mark every place where the department's method differs from DoPT's clarifications.
Write a reasoned representation
Point out each error with the figures, and ask that your case be placed before the next committee with the corrected count. Keep it to facts and numbers; long emotional letters are read less closely.
Wait for a decision, but not indefinitely
Under Section 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act you ordinarily wait up to six months for a decision on a representation. If none comes, or the reply ignores your figures, you may approach the Central Administrative Tribunal.
File the Original Application
The OA is filed under Section 19, with the rejection or the unanswered representation, the vacancy figures and the committee minutes. The usual relief asked for is a direction for fresh consideration against a correctly counted ceiling.
The steps for filing are set out in our page on filing an Original Application under Section 19, and the waiting rule is explained in representation before the tribunal under Section 20.
A made-up example: an MTS widow in Raipur
Here's a made-up example. Sunita lost her husband, a Multi Tasking Staff member in a regional office of a central scientific organisation at Raipur, in 2022. She has two school-going children, no other earning member and a small family pension. Her application was found deserving in 2023, 2024 and 2025, but each year the reply said no vacancy was available within the 5 per cent ceiling.
Her brother filed an RTI application. The reply showed that the office had 38 Level 1 and Level 2 direct recruitment vacancies across 2023 and 2024, all of them reported to the SSC. No order holding back 5 per cent had ever been passed. On paper, about two compassionate slots had been available over those two years, and Sunita was second in the ranking each time.
She sent a representation with these figures. When no reply came in six months, she approached the Jabalpur Bench of the tribunal, which hears cases from Chhattisgarh. The tribunal did not order her appointment. It directed the department to recount its vacancies according to the scheme and place her case before the next committee with reasons. She was offered an MTS post the following year. Another family's case on similar facts might have gone differently, depending on the ranking.
Where the dispute is heard
A compassionate appointment claim by the family of a central government employee is a recruitment matter under Section 14 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, so it goes to the Central Administrative Tribunal. The bench is ordinarily the one within whose territory the applicant lives or the office that rejected the claim is located. Bodies notified under Section 14(2) are also covered.
Families of employees of public sector undertakings and nationalised banks generally go to the High Court by writ, because those bodies are usually not under CAT. Families of state government employees go to the state administrative tribunal where one exists, or else to the High Court. Families of armed forces personnel follow the service's own scheme, and disputes there raise different forum questions; families of CAPF personnel generally go to the High Court.
Limitation runs one year from the final rejection under Section 21, or one year after the six months allowed for a representation. Repeated reminders do not restart the clock, so an old rejection may need an application for condonation of delay; see our note on reasons for delay that tribunals accept. For the wider picture of compassionate claims, including income limits and rejection grounds, see our page on refused compassionate appointment.
Time and cost: what to expect at each stage
| Stage | Usual time range | Cost in general terms |
|---|---|---|
| Committee consideration of a fresh application | Once a year in most departments; first sitting may take 6 to 12 months | No fee |
| RTI for vacancy statement and minutes | 30 days for a reply, then first appeal within 30 days | Rs 10 application fee plus copying charges |
| Representation pointing out errors in the count | Up to 6 months for a decision before the tribunal route opens | Postage only |
| Original Application before CAT | Notice and reply often take 3 to 8 months; final hearing time varies by bench | A small fixed fee (Rs 50 under Rule 7 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules; check the current figure and mode with the registry), plus typing and copies |
| Fresh consideration after a tribunal order | Usually the next committee sitting, often within the period fixed by the tribunal | No fee |
| Writ petition to the High Court against the tribunal's order | Months to years, depending on the court | Court fee as per the High Court's rules |
Mistakes families make while the case waits
The most common mistake is silence. A family receives 'no vacancy' in the first year, assumes the department will remember it, and writes nothing for four years. By then the committee has new members, the file has moved and the family's financial picture has changed, often for the better on paper because children have grown up and one has started work.
The second mistake is to fight the wrong battle. Arguing that the 5 per cent ceiling is unfair to widows is a policy argument that tribunals usually decline. Pointing out that 1.5 was rounded down to 1, or that no vacancies were held back, is a legal argument they can act on.
The third is refusing a lower offer. Families decline an MTS post in Bhopal hoping for a clerk's post in Jabalpur closer to home, and then find the case closed. A request for a nearer posting can be made after joining; a refused offer is hard to revive.
Advocate B.K. Singh's second tip and what to do this week
Advocate B.K. Singh tells families to update their file every year before the committee meets, in writing. If a child has turned eighteen, a loan has been taken for treatment, or the family has moved into rented housing, say so with papers. Committees rank on the record before them, and an application filed in 2022 says nothing about 2026.
This week, collect every letter you have, write down the years your case was considered, and send the RTI and representation described above. If you are the family of a postal employee, also look at the circle's merit list for each year. If the last rejection is close to a year old, do not wait for the RTI reply before taking advice on limitation.
For advice on your own papers or for updates on changes to the scheme, you can contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
Does the 5 per cent ceiling apply to Group A or Group B posts?
No. The DoPT scheme allows compassionate appointment only to Group C posts, which include the old Group D posts. Group A and Group B posts are filled through regular recruitment, so the ceiling does not arise there.
My case was found deserving three years in a row. Why was I still not appointed?
Being found deserving only means your family meets the scheme's conditions. Whether you get a post depends on how many slots the 5 per cent ceiling produced that year and where your family ranked. Ask for the year-wise vacancy working to check whether the count was right.
Can the department close my case after three years now?
The old three-year limit from the 2003 memorandum was waived, and DoPT's FAQ says there is no time limit for compassionate appointment. Deserving cases can be carried forward, though there is no waiting list against future vacancies. A closure for lack of financial need is a different matter.
Is there a separate compassionate quota for each office?
The 5 per cent is calculated on direct recruitment vacancies of the cadre or appointing authority, which may cover several offices. Small units that found no slot for three years can pool vacancies of three or more years. Ask which unit's vacancies were used in your case.
Can I ask for the files of other families who were appointed?
Personal details of other families may be withheld under the RTI Act, especially after the 2025 amendment to Section 8(1)(j). You can still ask for the number of vacancies, the calculation of 5 per cent, the number of families considered and your own ranking. The tribunal can call for fuller records if a case is filed.
Do railway families face the same 5 per cent limit?
Railways follow their own compassionate scheme under Railway Board instructions. Staff unions stated in 2026 that railway compassionate appointments continue without a 5 per cent ceiling. Check the current Railway Board circulars for your zone.
What if I refuse the post offered to me?
A refusal usually ends the claim, because the scheme is meant for immediate need. If the post is far from home or below your qualification, it is generally wiser to accept and later ask for a transfer or take departmental exams. Take advice before refusing in writing.
How long do I have to go to CAT after a rejection?
Section 21 of the Administrative Tribunals Act gives one year from the final order, or one year after the six months allowed for a pending representation. Reminders do not extend this. Delay can be condoned for sufficient cause, but it is safer not to rely on that.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and other High Courts, the Central Administrative Tribunal and other tribunals. This guide was written and reviewed by his team.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.
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