The Odisha High Court has ruled that adopted children cannot be denied employment benefits. The court said that if an employee dies while in service, their adopted child has the same right to compassionate appointment as a biological child. It also clarified that adoption-related benefits cannot be rejected simply because legal documents were completed after the employee's death.
In its judgement, the High Court said that the reality of the adoption and the family relationship matters more than the timing of paperwork. The court observed that rejecting a job application only because adoption documents were prepared later is not legally valid.
Case details and court ruling
The ruling was delivered by a division bench of Justice Krishna Shripad Dixit and Justice Shiv Shankar Mishra, which dismissed a plea filed by the Union government and the railways on January 6, 2026. The plea had challenged an earlier order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Cuttack.
The case pertains to K Sadhu Patra, a railway employee who died on duty on April 2, 2008. After his death, his wife, K Subhadra Patra, and their adopted son, K Adamma Patra, applied for a compassionate appointment. However, the railways rejected the application in December 2021, arguing that there was no valid proof of adoption at the time of Sadhu Patra's death and that the adoption documents were prepared only in February 2010.
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Adoption decree cannot be ignored
The High Court rejected this argument, pointing out that a civil court decree dated February 27, 2013, had officially declared Adamma Patra as the adopted son of Subhadra and Sadhu Patra. The court noted that this decree had become final, as no appeal was filed against it.
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The bench observed that once a judicial declaration attains finality, no government department has the authority to ignore it. As a result, the railways cannot deny employment benefits to an adopted child. The judgment is expected to serve as an important precedent in future cases involving compassionate appointments.
