Parbati Singha v. The State Of West Bengal And ORS.

28-04-2026 Item No.34 Subrata Bhattacharyya IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side AR(C) WPA No.5556 of 2026 Parbati Singha -vsThe State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Siddhartha Sarkar Mr. Sourav Gupta ...for the petitioner Mr. Sujit Sankar Koley ...for WBSEDCL 1.

The petitioner claims to be the widow of one Haradhan Singha who was an employee of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited and expired on October 14, 2025. She claims family pension.

2.

In support of her claim, the petitioner relies upon a certificate of marriage issued on April 15, 2004 declaring that the marriage between the employee and the petitioner took place on February 15, 1997. The petitioner has also relied upon the form of nomination of arrears of pension/family pension allegedly submitted by the employee before the pension sanctioning authority.

3.

Prayer has been made to direct the authority to disburse the family pension in her favour.

4.

Learned counsel for the employer, WBSEDCL, vehemently opposes the prayer of the petitioner. He contends that one Dipali Singha has filed a separate application seeking family pension claiming her to be the widow of the deceased employee, Haradhan Singha.

5.

According to the employer, in the absence of an order from a competent court of law declaring the status of the claimant as widow of the deceased employee, the employer will not be in a position to disburse family pension in favour of either of the two claimants.

6.

I have heard the respective submissions advanced by both the parties and have perused the documents annexed to the writ petition.

7.

The certificate of marriage relied upon by the petitioner appears to be issued on April 15, 2004. The date of marriage as mentioned therein is February 15, 1997. The date of birth of the child of Haradhan Singha and Parbati Singha, the petitioner, is mentioned as April 24, 1999 and the name of the female child is Tripti Singha.

8.

The form of nomination annexed to the writ petition relied upon by the petitioner mentions the date of birth of the first child of the parties as May 25, 1996 i.e., prior to the solemnization of marriage. The name of the male child of the petitioner is Satyajit Singha. The date of birth of Tripti Singha is mentioned as March 24, 1999. Besides, the death of birth of the petitioner is mentioned as January 6, 1981, i.e. she was a minor at the time of marriage.

9.

The details marriage certificate and the form of nomination relied upon by the petitioner are contradictory to each other. The same raises serious doubts in the mind of the Court as regards the factum of marriage of the petitioner and the deceased employee.

10.

There is already a claim for family pension submitted by a separate woman. In my view, it

will not be proper for the employer to release family pension in favour of either of the two in the absence of an appropriate order from the competent court of law declaring the marriage and the status of the parties.

11.

In view of the above, no relief can be granted in favour of the petitioner. The writ petition fails and is hereby dismissed.

12.

All parties are to act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.

13.

Certified copy of this order, if applied for, shall be made available to the parties.

[Amrita Sinha, J]