New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- In a firm reiteration of the purpose behind compassionate appointments, the Delhi High Court has dismissed a writ petition seeking employment in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) nearly two decades after the death of the petitioner's father, a CISF constable, observing that such appointments cannot be treated as a substitute for regular recruitment or an inherited privilege.

A Division Bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla observed, "Compassionate appointment is not a right which continues in perpetuity till purged. It caters to a very specific exigency, which dies with the efflux of time."

The petitioner had approached the Court seeking a direction to the Union of India and other...