Kalpana Pande vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 2167 Cal

20.04.2022

(P.M) In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side

WPA 5172 of 2022

Kalpana Pande Vs The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Krishna Keshab Paul ... for the petitioner.

Mr. Naba Kumar Das, Mr. Subhabrata Das .... For the State

The issue to be decided in the present

writ petition is whether an employee will be

entitled to receive pension on and from the date

following retirement or from the date of refund

of the employer's share of contribution.

The husband of the petitioner retired

from service on attaining the age of

superannuation on 30.11.2003 and he died on

23.02.2022.

In response to the notification published

by the School Education Department being No.

79-SE(L)/SL/5S-56/13(Pt-V) dated 13th June,

2014 issued in compliance of the direction

passed by the Hon'ble Special Bench of this

Court in the judgment dated 16th July, 2013 in

the matter of District Inspector of Schools (S.E.),

Kolkata -vs- Abhijit Baidya the husband of the

petitioner exercised option to switch over from

CPF to GPF and refunded the employer's share

of contribution with interest and additional

interest on 12.09.2014.

Pension Payment Order was issued in

favour of the husband of the petitioner with

effect from the date of refund of the employer's

share of contribution.

The petitioner claims that pension ought

to have been released on and from the next date

of retirement of the husband of the petitioner

and not from the date of refund of the

employer's share of contribution.

A similar issue has been decided by this

Court in the matter of WPA No. 964 of 2022

(Sitala Mandal (Chaudhuri) -vs- State of West

Bengal & Ors.).

The judgment passed in the aforesaid

matter on 8th February, 2022 will cover the

present writ petition.

As the teacher died in the meantime

accordingly the revised pension payment order

is required to be issued in favour of the widow

of the deceased employee.

Instant writ petition is disposed of by

directing the Director of Pension, Provident

Fund and Group Insurance and the concerned

Treasury Officer to verify the records, and in the

event, it is found, that the husband of the

petitioner exercised option and refunded the

employer's share of contribution within the time

specified in the notification dated 13th June,

2014, then steps shall be taken to issue Revised

Pension Payment Order in favour of the

petitioner with effect from the date following the

date of retirement on superannuation and to

release the pension in accordance with the

Revised Pension Payment Order. Such steps

shall be taken within a period of twelve weeks

from the date of communication of a copy of this

order. Payment shall positively be released

immediately upon issuance of the Revised

Pension Payment Order.

WPA 5172 of 2022 is disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this

order, if applied for, be given to the parties on

completion of usual formalities.

(Amrita Sinha, J.)