Monowara Begam v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

19.02.2025 Item No.16,DL Court No.19 AJ.

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION W.P.A. 3533 of 2025 Monowara Begam -Vs- The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Sudipta Maiti.

.....for the petitioner.

Mr. Amartya Pal.

........for the State.

Affidavit-of-service filed on behalf of the petitioners be kept with the record, in spite of service, the State is not represented.

This Court, under such circumstances, engages Mr. Amartya Pal, learned advocate from the State roll to represent the State, his appointments be regularized, copy of the writ petition be served upon Mr. Pal.

The husband of the petitioner was an approved Head Teacher of a Primary School, who died-in-harness on November 15, 2002, i.e. prior to the Notification dated June 13, 2014 came into effect as such, could not exercise the option to switch over from CPF to GPF Scheme.

The issue whether the petitioner being the widow of such a teacher is entitled to arrear pension of her deceased husband and family pension upon refund of the contribution of the Government in the Provident Fund account of the concerned teacher with interest and additional interest thereon, in view of the decisions of the Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court passed in FMA 864 of 2022 (Pramila Behara vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors.) and in FMA 620 of 2018

(State of West Bengal & Ors. vs. Sefali Jana & Ors.), is no longer res integra.

The District Inspector of Schools (P.E.), 24-Parganas (South), the respondent no. 4 herein is therefore directed to calculate the amount required to be refunded by the petitioner to get the benefit of pension and to communicate the calculation to the petitioner and upon deposit of the said amount, the said respondent, being the pension sanctioning authority shall verify the pension papers of the petitioner and shall send the same to the Director of Pension, Provident Fund and Group Insurance, Government of West Bengal, the respondent no.3 herein for further steps to be taken in accordance with law for issuance of the Pension Payment Order in favour of the petitioner.

The respondent nos. 4 & 3 shall complete their respective drills in this regard as expeditiously as possible. WPA 3533 of 2025 is disposed of with the above terms without any order as to costs.

Parties to act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court. Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.

(Biswajit Basu, J.)