Sakuntala Bagdi v. Eastern Coalfields Ltd. And ORS

11th May, 2026 Item no.D/L 37 Court No. 18 Pradip, A.R.(Ct.) In the High Court at Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side Case No.

WPA 6783 of 2026 In the matter of:

Sakuntala Bagdi .... Petitioner VS.

Eastern Coalfields Limited & Ors.

....Respondents For the Petitioner:

Mr. Nirmalendu Ganguly ....Advocate For the Respondents:

Mr. Manik Das ....Advocate

1. Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken on record.

2. The petitioner claims to be a married widow daughter of a deceased employee of the Eastern Coalfields Limited. The mother of the petitioner expired in April, 2014.

3. The petitioner applied for grant of compassionate appointment in the year 2018. The claim of the petitioner for employment on compassionate appointment stood rejected by the authority in January, 2019.

4. The petitioner applied afresh for grant of compassionate appointment and thereafter she was called for screening. The fate of the petitioner's screening has not been made known to her till date.

5. Prayer has been made by the petitioner to either grant compassionate appointment or to pay the Monthly Monetary Cash Compensation.

6. Learned advocate representing the Eastern Coalfields Limited submits that the authority has to first decide as to whether the petitioner can be treated as 'dependent' in terms of the National Coal Wage Agreement.

7. Prayer has been made to grant some time to the authority to adjudicate the claim of the petitioner.

8. Upon hearing the submissions made on behalf of both the parties and on perusal of the documents annexed to the writ petition, it appears that the prayer of the petitioner seeking compassionate appointment or Monthly Monetary Cash Compensation is yet to be finally decided by the authority. No useful purpose will be served by keeping the writ petition pending.

9. The instant writ petition, accordingly, stands disposed of by directing the General Manager, Pandabeswar area to take a decision on the petitioner's prayer strictly in accordance with the prevailing National Coal Wage Agreement at the earliest but positively within a period of twelve weeks from the date of communication of this order. The fate of the petitioner's prayer shall be made known to the petitioner.

10. If any of the prayers of the petitioner is allowed, then necessary consequential steps shall be taken by the authority without any further delay.

11. Leave granted to the advocate on record of the petitioner to amend the description of the respondent no. 2 in the cause title of

the writ petition. The proper respondent will be the General Manager, Pandabeswar area.

12. The writ petition stands disposed of.

13. Parties to act on the basis of the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.

14. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance of all requisite formalities. (Amrita Sinha, J.)