Judgment 1. The delay in filing the appeal is condoned. 2. Such a state of affair should not be rendered in the administration that when a government employee in a Class-IV appointment dies and his heir, who is entitled to seek a compassionate appointment, applies within a reasonable time, the government sits on the application for over a decade only to give reply that now the matter cannot be considered. This is precisely what has happened in the present case. 3. The petitioner-appellant points out to a record of the government itself that her application had been received and no action was taken on it. One such a record is letter dated 10.10.1995 (Annexure-2 to the writ petition) when a communication was exchanged between the Superintending Engineer, Minor Irrigation Circle, Chapra and the Chief Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department, Muzaffarpur. 4. This sort of attitude is unnecessarily harassing the poor persons in a Class-IV category to chase their application in offices. It leads to a very denigratory presumption. The application of Mostt. Usha Devi should have been acted upon and should be acted upon now. 5. The order of the learned judge on the writ petition is set aside. 6. The appeal is allowed.