Beauty Nandi vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 1386 Cal

22.03.2022

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

WPA 2124 of 2016 With IA No. CAN 1 of 2022

Beauty Nandi Vs The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Sourav Mitra, Ms. Sreyasree Choudhury ... for the petitioner.

Mr. Suman Dey ... for the State

The learned advocate for the petitioner submits

that the sole writ petitioner expired during the pendency

of the writ petition. An application for substitution has

been filed by the applicants namely Manas Kumar Nandi

(husband) and Animesh Nandi (Son).

In the facts of the present case the right to sue

does not get extinguished on the death of the sole

petitioner. Accordingly, the application for substitution

stands allowed.

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 wife of the applicant No. 1 and the mother of

the applicant no. 2 retired from service on attaining the

age of superannuation on 31st January, 2007 and she

died on 19th June, 2021.

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 teacher exercised

option to switch over from CPF to GPF and refunded the

employer's share of contribution with interest and

additional interest on 08.09.2014.

Pension Payment Order was issued in favour of

the deceased teacher with effect from the date of refund

of the employer's share of contribution.

The applicants claim that pension ought to have

been released on and from the next date of retirement of

the teacher 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 expired in the meantime

accordingly revised Pension Payment Order is required to

be issued in favour of the heir(s) of the deceased teacher.

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

teacher 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 heir(s) of the deceased teacher 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.

Affidavit of service kept with the record.

WPA 2124 of 2016 along with CAN 1 of 2022

stands 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.)