In short. Compassionate appointment points are the scores a department gives each bereaved family to decide who gets the few posts available in a year. This guide is for the spouse or child of a central employee who died in service or retired on medical grounds and whose application is waiting or was refused for low points. The committee usually meets once a year, so expect months, not weeks. Your next step is to get your own score sheet and check every line against your documents.
Is this your situation?
- A family member died in service and you applied for a compassionate job, but were told your points were too low.
- The committee's letter mentions a score such as 52 out of 100 and nothing else.
- You think the gratuity, GPF or family pension figures used for your family are wrong.
- Your children, an unmarried daughter or a disabled dependant were not counted.
- Your case has been carried over to the next year's committee more than once.
- Another family you know, with more money, seems to have scored higher.
- Your father or husband retired on medical grounds and the department is treating the case like a death case, or the other way round.
In short
- The score measures need, not merit. Fewer resources and more dependants mean more points.
- Your score is compared with other families in the same year. There is rarely a fixed pass mark, so a good score can still miss out in a year with few posts.
- Most mistakes are in the money columns. Check what was counted as lump sum, family pension and income.
- Ask for your own score sheet in writing. Without it you cannot point to the wrong line.
- Keep each year's papers. Cases are often reconsidered in later years, and the family's situation at each stage matters.
Why departments use compassionate appointment points
The DoPT's consolidated scheme of 16 January 2013 allows compassionate appointment only to a family that is in real financial difficulty, and only within a small share of direct recruitment vacancies in Group C posts, usually 5 per cent. Applications far outnumber those posts. A committee therefore has to compare families and pick the most deserving, and a points system is the way most departments now do it. It is meant to replace guesswork with a written method that the family can check.
The Supreme Court has accepted this approach. In Canara Bank v. Ajithkumar G.K. (February 2025), the Court restated the principles on compassionate appointment and observed that fixing slabs and a method for assessing a family's finances reduces arbitrariness and brings uniformity, while the facts of each case still matter. It also repeated what Umesh Kumar Nagpal said in 1994: compassionate appointment is a concession to help a family through a sudden crisis, not a right to the deceased employee's post.
So the question in most cases is not whether points can be used, but whether your points were worked out correctly and under the right version of the scheme. That is a question of arithmetic and evidence, which is good news, because arithmetic can be checked.
What earns points: one department's scale as an illustration
| Attribute | Maximum points (Posts, 2020 scheme) | What raises your score |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly family pension or pension | 20 | A lower monthly amount; the highest slab is for the smallest pensions |
| Lump sum received (gratuity, group insurance, GPF or NPS lump sum, leave encashment) | 10 | Smaller total actually received |
| Monthly income of earning members and income from property | 5 | No earning member, or low income |
| Movable and immovable property and deposits | 5 | Little or no property apart from the terminal benefits |
| Number of dependants | 8 | Two or more dependants |
| Number of unmarried daughters | 8 | Two or more |
| Number of minor children | 8 | Two or more |
| Left-over service of the deceased employee | 14 | More years of service left when the employee died or retired |
| Age of the case | 12 | A recent death; the score falls as years pass |
| Disability or serious illness | 10 | Applicant with a disability scores highest; a dependent family member with a disability or listed serious illness scores less |
Reading the table correctly
The table follows the Department of Posts scheme of 28 September 2020, effective from 1 October 2020, because it is one of the most detailed and widely followed. It totals 100 points, with 15 bonus points for a widow or for the wife of an employee retired on medical grounds. The Department of Posts issued a revised relative merit point system on 23 June 2025, reported to use eleven attributes and to apply from the 2024 vacancy year, with a bonus for a spouse applicant and a smaller one where the deceased was a single parent. Older cases continue under the earlier guidelines. Get the exact version that your committee applied before you compare anything.
Other ministries have their own scales. Defence civilian establishments have long used a weighted points assessment, and many attached offices of ministries have adopted similar tables. The attributes are usually the same in spirit, but the slabs and maximums differ, so a score of 60 in one department means nothing in another. Railway families should note that the Railways follow their own Railway Board instructions on appointment on compassionate grounds, which work differently from this model.
Family income points and terminal benefits points: where most errors sit
The money attributes carry the most weight and the most mistakes. Terminal benefits points are usually based on the lump sum the family actually received: death gratuity, the Central Government Employees Group Insurance amount, GPF or the NPS lump sum, and leave encashment. Check that the committee used what was received, not what was sanctioned on paper, and that amounts adjusted against loans or advances were taken out. A GPF balance that went to repay a house building advance never reached the family's hands.
Family income points look at the monthly income of earning members and income from property. The common error is counting the salary of a married son living separately in another city, or a daughter-in-law's earnings, as family income. Another is treating the family's single house, in which they live, as income-yielding property. If a shop or land produces rent, that is income; the roof over the family's head is not.
Family pension points depend on the monthly amount. For the first ten years after a death in service, family pension under Rule 50 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 is usually paid at the enhanced rate, around half of last pay, before it falls to the normal rate. Committees sometimes work from a figure that includes items the scheme did not ask them to count, or from the wrong pay. Ask which figure was used and how. Whether family pension should count against the family at all is a separate question, discussed in our guide on whether family pension can defeat a compassionate claim.
Dependants, daughters, children and disability
These attributes are counted on a fixed date, often the date of application, while money items are usually taken as on the date of death or retirement. A child who turns eighteen between those dates, or a daughter who marries, can change the score. Make sure the committee used the date its own scheme fixes, and not whatever was convenient when the file was put up.
A dependent family member normally means one who was wholly dependent on the employee. Committees sometimes leave out an aged parent living with the family, or a divorced daughter who returned home. Whether they count depends on the scheme's definition, so read it and, if they fit, give proof of residence and dependency.
Disability points are often lost because the certificate is in the wrong format or from the wrong authority. A disability certificate under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, issued on the UDID system or by the notified medical authority, is safer than a private hospital's letter. For a serious illness, the scheme may list the illnesses that qualify; attach treatment records that name the condition plainly.
Left-over service and the age of the case
Left-over service rewards families where the employee died young, with many years of service ahead. It is worked out from the date of death or medical retirement to the date the employee would have retired. The usual mistake is a wrong date of birth or a wrong retirement age in the calculation. If the service book shows a different date of birth from the one used, raise it at once.
The age-of-case attribute pulls the other way. In the 2020 Posts scheme, a case less than three years old earns the highest points and the points fall in bands, reaching zero after fifteen years. This reflects the courts' view that compassionate appointment is for immediate relief. It also means that every year of waiting can cost a family points, which is one more reason not to sit quietly through repeated carry-overs.
Medical retirement cases score differently
The scheme also covers families of employees retired on medical grounds before the age limit the scheme sets, not only deaths in service. These cases are scored on the same table, but a few columns behave differently. The retired employee draws invalid pension rather than the family drawing family pension, so the first column uses that amount. Left-over service runs from the date of medical retirement. In the 2020 Posts scheme, the wife of a medically retired employee gets the same bonus points as a widow.
Two things go wrong here. Offices sometimes treat a voluntary retirement, or a retirement after the employee simply stopped attending, as a medical retirement case, or the other way round. And the medical board's finding of permanent incapacity is sometimes missing from the file, which leaves the committee unsure the case is eligible at all. Put a copy of the medical board report and the retirement order on top of your papers. If the invalid pension itself is in dispute, our page on invalid pension after medical retirement deals with that separately.
A medically retired employee who later dies changes the picture again: the family may then draw family pension, and the case may need fresh scoring. Tell the office in writing the week it happens.
Compassionate appointment ranking is relative, not a pass mark
Families often ask how many compassionate appointment points they need. There is usually no fixed figure. The committee ranks all eligible cases for that year and appoints from the top until the available posts run out. A family scoring 70 may be selected in one circle and not in another, and may miss out one year and succeed the next, depending on how many posts and how many cases there were.
This is why a refusal letter that says only 'not found comparatively more indigent' is not the end of the matter. You are entitled to know your own score and, in fairness, the score of the last family selected that year. If the gap is small, a corrected entry in one money column can change the result. Some schemes close a case after it has been considered a fixed number of times; the 2025 Posts revision is reported to close a case after three committee considerations unless new facts emerge. Check yours.
The ranking also explains why families who seem better off are sometimes selected. The other family may have more dependants, more left-over service or a disabled member, and these can outweigh a higher pension. Before alleging unfairness, look at the complete picture.
Check your score sheet line by line
- Which version of the points scheme was applied, and the date of that order
- The date taken for money items and the date taken for family members
- Monthly family pension figure used, and whether it matches the PPO
- Each lump sum item listed separately, and whether loan or advance adjustments were deducted
- Who was counted as an earning member, and their income figure
- What property was counted, and whether the family's only house was treated as income-yielding
- Number of dependants, unmarried daughters and minor children, by name
- Date of birth and retirement age used for left-over service
- Disability or illness points, and which certificate was relied on
- Bonus points for a spouse applicant, where the scheme gives them
Getting your score and correcting it
Ask for the score sheet
Write to the office that processed the application, usually the head of office or the divisional office, asking for the points worksheet for your case and the minutes of the committee meeting. If there is no reply in a month, file an RTI application for your own family's score and the method used.
Match each line to a document
Lay your PPO, gratuity and GPF payment advices, bank statements, income certificate and family details beside the worksheet. Mark every figure that differs and note the document that proves the correct one.
Write a short, specific representation
List each error in a numbered paragraph, the correct figure, and the corrected points under the scheme. Attach only the papers that prove each point. Ask for the case to be placed before the next committee with the corrected score.
Ask for the last selected score
Request, in the same letter, the score of the last family selected in the same year and circle. Some offices give it; others refuse citing privacy. Even a refusal is useful later.
Follow up before the next committee meets
Committees often meet once a year, typically in the first quarter. Write again a month before the expected meeting so your corrected figures are in the file.
Decide on a tribunal case if needed
If the department refuses to correct a plain error, or rejects the case with no score at all, an Original Application before the Central Administrative Tribunal can ask for a fresh decision.
The Supreme Court in Malaya Nanda Sethy v. State of Orissa (2022) said compassionate applications should be decided within about six months. A long silence is itself something you can raise.
What Advocate B.K. Singh looks at first in a points case
Advocate B.K. Singh begins with the lump sum column, because in his experience that is where the largest swings in score come from. He asks the family for the actual bank credits of gratuity, group insurance and GPF, not the sanction letters, and checks whether any loan, advance or recovery was set off before payment. A difference of a lakh or two can move the family a full slab.
His second tip is for families who are waiting: write down every change in your situation as it happens and tell the department in writing. A son losing his private job, a new illness in the family or a daughter becoming a widow can all change the score if the scheme counts them on the date of consideration. Families usually mention these only after a refusal, when it is too late for that year.
A made-up example: a postman's widow in Gorakhpur
Here's a made-up example. Sunita, 38, lost her husband, a postman in Gorakhpur, eleven years before his retirement date. She has two school-going children and lives in their own two-room house. She applied for a compassionate job as Multi Tasking Staff. A year later she received a letter saying her case was 'not recommended' with 49 points.
Her nephew obtained the worksheet through RTI. Two errors stood out. The lump sum column showed Rs 12.6 lakh and gave her zero points, but Rs 3.4 lakh of that was GPF that had gone to clear a house building advance, and the gratuity figure had been entered twice in the total. The real amount received was about Rs 6.5 lakh. Her younger son's disability certificate, issued through the UDID system, was on the file but had not been scored.
Sunita's representation set out the two errors with the bank statements and the GPF final payment advice. The divisional office re-scored the case, adding several points in the lump sum column and a further six for a dependent family member with a disability. Her case went to the next committee with the corrected score. Whether she is selected will still depend on the other families and the posts that year, but she is now compared on a true footing. Had the office refused to correct the figures, she could have approached the Allahabad Bench of the tribunal.
When the points themselves can be challenged in law
A points scheme can be tested if it adds a condition the DoPT scheme or the department's own rules do not allow, if it was applied in a way that defeats its purpose, or if it treats like cases differently. More often the challenge is narrower: the committee applied the scheme to the wrong facts, ignored a document the family gave, or gave no reasons. These are the cases where the tribunal tends to direct reconsideration.
One point is genuinely unsettled. Should a family be judged under the scheme that existed when the employee died, or under whatever scheme is in force when the file is finally decided? Two-judge benches of the Supreme Court have answered this differently, and a bigger bench has been asked to resolve it. So if the department switched to a new points table while your file sat pending, and the new table scores you lower, object in writing now and ask your advocate what the current position is before you pick an argument.
The tribunal will not, on its own, award a family more points or order an appointment because the family is sympathetic. In Ajithkumar the Supreme Court stressed that courts cannot grant compassionate appointment out of sympathy or outside the scheme. Your case must point to an error the scheme itself condemns.
Which forum hears a points dispute
A family of a central government employee takes a points dispute to the Central Administrative Tribunal, because a compassionate appointment to a central civil post is a recruitment matter. That includes civilians working for the defence services and staff of bodies brought under the tribunal by a Section 14(2) notification. Choose the bench by asking where the refusal was made and where it reached you; for most families both point to the bench for their own state. A family in Delhi files at the Principal Bench on Copernicus Marg.
Some families must go elsewhere. Where the deceased worked for a PSU or a bank, or served in a CAPF such as the CRPF or BSF, the remedy is a writ in the High Court, and the CAPFs have their own compassionate appointment instructions. A state government employee's family uses the state tribunal or the High Court. On time, Section 21 allows a year from the refusal; if a representation went unanswered, the year runs from the end of six months after you sent it. The main service page on refused compassionate appointments covers the overall process, and the guide on the 5 per cent vacancy ceiling explains why even a high score may wait.
Typical timeline and costs
| Stage | Time it usually takes | Cost to the family |
|---|---|---|
| Application processed and placed before the committee | 3 to 12 months, depending on when the yearly meeting falls | None |
| Score sheet obtained through letter or RTI | Up to 30 days, plus 30 more if a first appeal is needed | Rs 10 RTI fee for central offices; photocopy charges |
| Representation against the score and re-scoring | 1 to 6 months; often only at the next meeting | None |
| Original Application before the tribunal | Filing in 1 to 3 weeks; final order in 6 months to 2 years | Rs 50 tribunal fee under Rule 7 (confirm the present amount with the registry), with copying and affidavit costs |
| Fresh consideration after a tribunal order | Usually within the period the order fixes, often 8 to 12 weeks | None |
| Professional fee, if you engage counsel | Agreed before work starts | Discussed at the first meeting and fixed in writing for each stage |
Mistakes families make while waiting
Many families accept the first refusal as final, or wait years hoping their turn will come, while the age-of-case points drop. Others send emotional letters to ministers instead of a precise representation to the office that holds the file. A short letter that says 'line 2 of the worksheet counts Rs 3.4 lakh GPF that was adjusted against HBA; please see enclosure 3' achieves far more.
Some families also take a temporary private job and do not mention it, or acquire property after the death and leave it out. If the department finds out, the case can be rejected outright. Disclose changes honestly; the scheme can work in your favour only if the facts in the file are true.
If the deceased employee had pay, arrears or other claims of his own pending, those are separate from the compassionate job and should be pursued in parallel; our guide on claims of a deceased employee that the family can pursue explains how. A family appointed on compassionate grounds should also understand the pension scheme that will apply to the new employee; see compassionate appointment and the old pension.
What to do this week
Find the refusal letter or the last communication from the department and write down its date. Ask in writing for your compassionate appointment points worksheet and the version of the scheme used. Collect the PPO, the payment advices for gratuity, GPF and group insurance, the last bank statements and the family's income and disability papers in one folder.
If the worksheet shows an error, send a numbered representation before the next committee meets. If the department will not engage, a tribunal case can ask for proper reconsideration; our guide on filing an Original Application explains what goes into one. Speak to Advocate B.K. Singh for advice on your family's score sheet or for updates on the compassionate appointment rules.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good score for compassionate appointment?
There is no universal good score. Families are ranked against each other in the same year, and the committee selects from the top until the posts run out. A score that succeeds in one year or circle may fail in another.
Can I get my compassionate appointment points under RTI?
You can usually get your own family's worksheet and the method used, since it is your information. Scores of other families may be refused as personal information, and the RTI position on personal data changed in November 2025, so check the current rule. Ask the office directly first.
Does gratuity reduce compassionate appointment points?
In most points schemes, yes. The lump sum received, including gratuity, group insurance and GPF, earns fewer points as it rises. Only amounts the family actually received should be counted.
Why did my score go down when my case was reconsidered?
Points for the age of the case usually fall as years pass, and children turning adult or daughters marrying can reduce other attributes. Ask for the old and new worksheets and compare them line by line.
Are points the same in every department?
No. Each ministry or department can frame its own table under the DoPT scheme. The Department of Posts, defence civilian establishments and others use different slabs, and the Railways follow separate instructions.
My mother-in-law lives with us. Should she count as a dependant?
If she was wholly dependent on the deceased employee and the scheme's definition includes her, she should. Give proof that she lived with the family and had no independent income.
Can the tribunal give me extra points?
The tribunal does not normally re-score a case itself. If it finds the score was worked out wrongly or without reasons, it will usually direct the department to reconsider within a fixed time.
Is there a time limit to challenge a low score?
Yes. A tribunal case must be filed within a year of the refusal; where your representation was never answered, the year starts six months after you sent it. Do not wait for that. Get the error corrected before the next committee sits.
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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