Smt. Mina Bouri vs M/S. Eastern Coal Fields Limited ...
2023 Latest Caselaw 2105 Cal/2

OD-7

                              ORDER SHEET

                             WPO/1057/2023

                  IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                 CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
                           ORIGINAL SIDE

                        SMT. MINA BOURI
                               VS
           M/S. EASTERN COAL FIELDS LIMITED AND ORS.


  BEFORE:
  The Hon'ble JUSTICE LAPITA BANERJI
  Date: 18th August, 2023

                                                                    Appearance:
                                                         Mr. Partha Ghosh, Adv.
                                                    Mr. Amal Kumar Datta, Adv.
                                                       Ms. Simran Sureka, Adv.
                                                         Mr. Debashis Das, Adv.
                                                      Mr. Rahul Agarwala, Adv.

                                                  Ms. Tanushree Dasgupta, Adv.




       The Court: Ms. Dasgupta, learned counsel appearing on behalf of

the Eastern Coal Fields Limited, raises a point of maintainability of the

writ petition in the Original Side of this Hon'ble Court.

       The petitioner's case is that her husband died in harness on

August 26, 2006. Prior to that he went missing and a police complaint

was lodged at Deoghar Thana.        Thereafter, the petitioner's husband's

body was identified in the morgue and a copy of the death certificate was

issued on March 2, 2013 by the competent authority recording the date

of death of the petitioner's husband as August 26, 2006. Thereafter, the
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petitioner handed over the death certificate and the post-mortem report

of her husband to the management of ECL on February 17, 2014. The

petitioner prayed for employment on compassionate ground and such

claim for employment was being processed by the respondent ECL. The

petitioner was called for Initial Medical Examination. After the petitioner

went for the IME nothing further was intimated to the petitioner

regarding her employment. The petitioner made several representations

and then made an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

In response to the application made by the petitioner under RTI she was

informed that her claim for compassionate appointment could not be

considered because of inordinate delay.

Mr. Ghosh, learned counsel appears on behalf of the petitioner and

submits that either the petitioner should have been given compassionate

appointment under Clause 9.5 of NCWA (National Coal Wage Agreement)

or should have been granted Monthly Monetary Cash Compensation

(MMCC) from the date of death of her husband.

Ms. Dasgupta appearing on behalf of the ECL opposes such prayer.

She submits that the death certificate was only handed over to the ECL

on February 17, 2014. Therefore, the company was not aware of such

death prior to 2014. Next she submits that an application for payment of

MMCC was made in 2023 and MMCC should be directed to be paid from

the date of such application.

Considering the rival submissions of the parties and the materials

placed on record, this Court finds that the death certificate and the post

mortem report was handed over by the petitioner to the ECL on February

17, 2014, eight years after the death of her husband. Therefore, the

question of compassionate appointment cannot be considered in favour

of the petitioner.

As far as the petitioner's claims for MMCC is concerned, this Court

is of the view that such payment should be made from the date on which

the petitioner handed over the death certificate and the post mortem

report to the ECL. The issue whether MMCC should be paid from the

date of the application made for such purpose has been decided in

various judgments passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court. A

poor, illiterate widow cannot be deprived of her legitimate benefits/dues

by the employer/ECL, by seeking recourse to the argument that without

application, MMCC is not payable.

In the light of the discussion above, this Court directs the payment

of MMCC month by month starting from September 11, 2023, till such

time the petitioner attains the age of 60 years, upon compliance of the

necessary formalities.

The arrears of MMCC shall be released within two months from the

date of this order. Interest shall be payable at the rate of 6% p.a. from

February 17, 2014 till the date of actual disbursal of the entire amount

of MMCC.

With the directions aforesaid, WPO/1057/2023 is disposed of.

All parties are to act on a server copy of downloaded from the

official website of this Hon'ble Court.

Urgent certified website copies of this order, if applied for, be made

available to the parties subject to compliance with all requisite

formalities.

(LAPITA BANERJI, J.)

bp.