Snigdha Ghosh v. Union Of India And ORS.

01.09.2025 d.p.

In The High Court At Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side W.P.A 354 of 2025 Snigdha Ghosh -versus Union of India & Ors.

Mr. B. Chatterjee, Mr. Anjan Paul, Mr. Mridul Kanti Sasmal.

...For the Petitioner.

Mr. Sukumar Bhattacharyya.

...For UOI.

Mr. Abhijit Sarkar, Ms. Tuhina Parvin.

...For the State.

1.

The petitioner received family pension being the unmarried daughter of a deceased freedom freighter with effect from the year 2002. The family pension was stopped in the year 2015 upon receiving a report from the District Magistrate that the petitioner was married. Thereafter, a further report on the marital status of the petitioner was received from the District Magistrate, Purba Medinipur reporting that she is unmarried. The pension has however, not being restored in favour of the petitioner.

2.

From the communication made by the Assistant Section Officer, EZ Section, FFR Division dated 25th August, 2025, it appears that the concerned Bank was directed by the Ministry to submit a clarification/report sanctioning pension to the petitioner.

3.

As the documents are awaiting from the Bank, the Ministry has not been able to restart pension of the petitioner.

4.

It appears that the petitioner is without pension from 2015. Nearly ten years have elapsed in the meantime. It is high time that the Ministry proceeds with the matter seriously to ensure that pension is restored to the petitioner at the earliest without any further delay.

5.

The authority shall keep in mind the advanced age of the petitioner who is nearly 80 years of age and the authority ought not to delay in restoring pension of the petitioner.

6.

Steps shall be taken in the matter at the earliest but positively within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of this order. 7.

All arrear pension shall be released without any further delay.

8.

The writ petition stands disposed of.

9.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance of all requisite formalities.

( Amrita Sinha, J.)