Prasanta Kumar Mukherjee vs The Kolkata Municipal ...
2022 Latest Caselaw 6708 Cal

   110
19.09.2022

d.p.

In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side

W.P.A 5407 of 2022

Prasanta Kumar Mukherjee

-versus The Kolkata Municipal Corporation & Ors.

Mr. Apratim Bhattacharya, Mr. Arpan Guha.

...For the Petitioner.

Mr. Aloke Kumar Ghosh, Mr. Arijit Dey.

...For KMC.

Affidavit-of-service filed in Court today is taken on record.

The petitioner is a retired employee of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

While he was in service, a departmental proceeding was initiated against him and he was placed under suspension on 5th December, 1995. The said order of suspension was withdrawn on 24th May, 1996.

An F.I.R. was lodged against the petitioner in March 1997 and the petitioner was again placed under suspension.

The petitioner obtained bail after suffering 60 days in custody. Article of charges were framed in

connection with the departmental proceeding on 28th July, 1997.

The second suspension order against the petitioner was withdrawn on 28th July, 1999.

The petitioner attained his age of superannuation and retired from service on 31st October, 2001.

The grievance of the petitioner is that after his retirement, he has not been paid his superannuation benefits including pension and other terminal benefits. In the meantime, by a judgment dated 19th August, 2016, the petitioner was acquitted from the criminal case.

Repeated representations made by the petitioner praying for disbursing his terminal dues have remained unanswered.

Learned advocate appearing for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is not ready with proper instructions.

It appears that the petitioner has retired from service more than 20 years back. The departmental proceeding initiated against the petitioner in 1995 is yet to be concluded.

The petitioner categorically submitted that the said proceeding was not followed up by the employer in its right earnest.

As the petitioner is without any terminal benefits for a considerable period of time, accordingly, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, being the employer of

the petitioner, is directed to take immediate steps for releasing the provisional pension of the petitioner in accordance with law.

The concerned authority shall ensure that the petitioner receives the provisional pension positively within a period of eight weeks.

The employer shall let the petitioner know the formalities that have to be complied with by him for obtaining the provisional pension.

The employer is directed to file a report by way of affidavit disclosing the status of the departmental proceeding initiated against the petitioner.

The affidavit shall also disclose as to whether the employer is still interested to continue with the departmental proceeding even though the petitioner has retired from service more than 20 years ago.

The affidavit shall be prepared and served upon the learned advocate appearing for the petitioner by 15th November, 2022.

Let the matter appear in the list on 22nd November, 2022 under the heading "For Orders".

( Amrita Sinha, J.)