Dr Bidyut Banerjee And ANR v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

26.6.2023 ap WPA 12008 of 2023 Dr. Bidyut Banerjee & Anr.

Vs.

State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. N.C. Bihani Ms. P.B. Bihani Mr. Soumya Mukherjee ... For the petitioners.

Mr. Anil Kr. Gupta ... For UGC.

Mr. Somnath Ganguli, AGP, Mr. Balarko Sen ... For the State.

The petitioner nos. 1 and 2 are employed as Graduate Laboratory Instructors at respondent nos. 8 and 10, respectively.

They have completed their Ph. D. degrees from Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata and are claiming benefit of said degree in their pay. It has been submitted by Mr. Bihani, learned advocate appearing for the petitioners, that the relevant colleges have forwarded necessary documents to the Director of Public Instruction, West Bengal for granting them benefit of their Ph.D. degrees. In response, the Director of Public Instruction, West Bengal sought for certain documents from the college. The said letters are appearing at pages 82 and 86 of the writ petition.

In response to the said letters, both the colleges submitted all necessary documents to the Director of Public Instruction, West Bengal, but the said authority till date has not taken any further steps.

I do no see any justification to keep this writ petition pending before this Court.

This writ petition is disposed of with a direction upon the Director of Public Instruction, West Bengal to consider the case of the petitioners for granting them the benefit of their Ph. D. degrees in accordance with law within two months from the date of communication of this order. The petitioners as well as the relevant colleges shall be heard by the Director of Public Instruction, West Bengal in arriving at the decision. Accordingly, WPA 12008 of 2023 is disposed of. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance with the requisite formalities.

(Kausik Chanda, J.)