Sandhya Maji v. Union Of India And ORS.

06.02.2025

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION APPELLATE SIDE WPA 2345 of 2024 SANDHYA MAJI VS.

UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Mr. Ranojoy Chatterjee Mr. Tamal Singha Roy ....for the Writ Petitioner Mr. Swapan Kumar Nandi Ms. Banani Bhattacharya ....for the Union of India Ms. Parna Roy Choudhury ....for the Respondent / Bank Item no.DL/5 Court No. 23 Asraf, A.R.(Ct.) A report in the form of an affidavit filed in Court today is taken on record.

It appears from the said affidavit that the family pension has been paid to the petitioner, being the widow of the deceased employee Nanigopal Maji, up till November, 2022. However, since then no further family pension has been paid on the ground that the life certificate was not submitted with the respondent/Bank. The petitioner, however, disputes the fact of nonsubmission of life certificate.

Be that as it may, without going into this controversy, let the Bank pay the arrears of the family pension between December, 2022 till February, 2025 by 31st March, 2025 with the accrued interest at the rate of 6% per annum. The interest is being directed to be paid as the money remained with the Bank and the Bank had derived benefit out of the same, while on the other hand, the petitioner being not paid the family pension was deprived from deriving benefit therefrom. The Bank shall pay the current family pension for the month of March, 2025 by the applicable date and continue to pay the same month by month in accordance with law.

In order to resolve the area of dispute, I also direct a competent officer of the Bank to visit the petitioner at her residence and collect the necessary documents and also physically verify that the petitioner is alive. This exercise should be done at the earliest to enable the Bank to adhere to the timeline as indicated hereinabove.

Nothing further remains to be adjudicated. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of.

The parties are directed to act upon the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official

website of this High Court without insisting upon production of a certified copy thereof.

( Arindam Mukherjee, J. )