Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Balaram Das vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 12 August, 2022
12.08.2022.
Item no. 745.
sp
W.P.A. No. 8084 of 2022
Balaram Das
Versus
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Banshi Badan Maity
..For the petitioner.
Ms. Bineeta Bhattacharjee
...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 petitioner retired from service on
attaining the age of superannuation on
30.04.1997.
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 petitioner
exercised option to switch over from CPF to GPF
and refunded the employer's share of
contribution with interest and additional interest
on 08.04.2015.
Pension Payment Order was issued in
favour 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 and not from the date of refund of
the employer's share of contribution.
A similar issued 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.
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 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.
For the aforesaid purpose, the DI of
Schools concerned shall process the claim for
arrears of pension and make/forward a
necessary recommendation/sanction to the
DPPG expeditiously. The DPPG in turn shall act
based on such recommendation/sanction.
Affidavit of service kept with the record.
Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed
of.
Urgent certified photo copy of this order, if
applied for, be supplied to the parties
expeditiously on compliance of usual legal
formalities.
(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)
