Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
State Of West Bengal & Ors vs Sudhin Chakrabarti & Ors on 7 April, 2022
19. 07.04.2022
Ct. No.06
Tanmoy
M.A.T. 543 of 2019
State of West Bengal & Ors.
-Versus-
Sudhin Chakrabarti & Ors.
With
IA No: C.A.N. 1 of 2019 (Old No: C.A.N. 5792 of 2019)
With
IA No: C.A.N. 2 of 2019 (Old No: C.A.N. 5793 of 2019)
Mr. Anirban Roy, Ld. G.P.,
Mr. Raja Saha, Adv.,
Mr. Biswabrata Basu Mallick, Adv.,
Mr. Amit Kr. Ghosh, Adv.
...for the appellants/State.
Mr. K.K. Chakrabarti, Adv.,
Ms. Srijani Das, Adv.
...for the respondent no.1.
Mr. Soumya Majumder, Adv.,
Ms. Shagun Baid, Adv.
...for the respondent nos. 26 & 27.
In Re: IA No: C.A.N. 2 of 2019 (Old No: C.A.N.
5793 of 2019)
This is an application for condonation of delay of
forty three days in filing the appeal. Causes shown
being sufficient, the delay is condoned. The application
being IA No: C.A.N. 2 of 2019 (Old No: C.A.N. 5793 of
2019) in M.A.T. 543 of 2019 is disposed of.
In Re: M.A.T. 543 of 2019
With
IA No: C.A.N. 1 of 2019 (Old No: C.A.N. 5792 of 2019)
The writ petitioners are/were employees of
Tamralipta Co-operative Spinning Mills Limited. They
approached the learned Single Judge with the grievance
that their prayer for conversion from the CPF scheme to
the GPF scheme has not been allowed by the Authority
although similarly circumstanced employees of the
Government have been so allowed. By the impugned
judgment and order the learned Single Judge directed as
follows:
"For the reasons stated hereinabove, the
impugned order dated September 4, 2018 is hereby
quashed and/or set aside. The writ petitioners shall
be afforded the benefit of conversion from CPF to
GPF. They submit that they are ready and willing to
surrender the amounts drawn by them towards the
provident fund already together with the commonly
applied rate of interest.
The management of the Tamralipta Co-operative
Spinning Mills Limited shall proceed to allow
conversion from CPF to GPF to its employees on the
same terms and conditions as available to the
employees of the West Bengal Khadi Board. Let the
process as directed hereinabove commence within a
period of one month from the date of communication
of this order."
Being aggrieved, the State has come up in appeal
primarily with the grievance that implementation of the
impugned order would impose additional financial
burden on the State and that the writ petitioners have
no right to claim conversion from the CPF scheme to the
GPF scheme.
We are told that affidavits were not invited before
the learned Single Judge. We would like to have the
stand of the Co-operative society on record.
Let affidavit-in-opposition to the stay petition be
filed by the respondents within a fortnight from date;
reply, if any, thereto, be filed within a week thereafter.
List the matter after three weeks (April 28, 2022).
Prima facie it appears that the writ petitioners are
not similarly circumstanced as the employees of West
Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board or the
Cottage and Small Scale Industries Department as the
writ petitioners claim. Further, the respondent Society
says that if the impugned order is implemented and the
Society is required to pay pension to the writ petitioners
under the GPF scheme, it will not be in a position to pay
salary to its employees.
Since we find that the State has an arguable case,
the impugned order shall not be given effect to until
disposal of the appeal or until further orders, whichever
is earlier.
The question of maintainability of the appeal is left
open at the instance of the writ petitioners, who say that
after the contempt proceedings have been disposed of,
this appeal is not maintainable.
(Kausik Chanda, J.) (Arijit Banerjee, J.)
