Sandhya Rani Kundu v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

02-12-2022 Item No.11 Subrata Bhattacharyya

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side WPA No.25927 of 2022 Sandhya Rani Kundu -vsThe State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Lalratan Mandal Mr. Avik Kumar Das Mr. Dilip Kumar Sadhu ...for the petitioner Mr. Ratan Kumar Mukherjee Mr. Rajat Dutta ...for the State Md. Sarwar Jahan Ms. Mousumi Mitra ...for respondent no.4 The petitioner is engaged as Sahayika under the Sishu Shiksha Karmasuchi in her respective Sishu Siksha Kendra and the age of superannuation of that post is 65 years. Since April 1, 2020 all the Sishu Siksha Kendras have been brought under the control of the School Education Department, Government of West Bengal and thereby the Sahayikas who were within 60 years of age prior to April 1, 2020 were permitted to get the status at par with the para-teachers by extending the benefits available for the para-teachers, if they exercised option as per the requisite format within February 1, 2020.

The service benefits available to the para-teachers were more lucrative in comparison with the post of Sahayikas as no benefit of employees' provident fund scheme was available to Sahayikas.

Under such circumstances, the petitioner exercised her option to get the status and benefits at par with the para-teachers. But since April 1, 2020 no amount has been deducted from her pay packet on account of the employees' provident fund, nor any

contribution has been made by the Government towards the said provident fund scheme. Owing to exercise of such option, the petitioner has been forced to retire at the age of 60 years of age. As such, she seeks a direction so that she may maintain her status as Sahayika or revert back to the post of Sahayika from the status at par with para-teachers and she may be allowed to continue her service up to the age of 65 years.

Learned counsels appearing for the respondents submit that a scheme which was to be promulgated to bring the Sahayikas at par with the para-teachers could not be promulgated as yet. On such score, learned counsels submit, if the petitioner who is to retire within six months, she may withdraw her option.

Learned counsel for the petitioner accepts such submission/suggestion advanced on behalf of the respondents.

Having heard learned counsels for the parties and on consideration of the relevant Government Orders/ notifications annexed to the writ petition, I feel that the prayers made by the petitioner may be allowed. Therefore, in view of the above, the petitioner is allowed to switch back to the post of Sahayika with immediate effect and work as Sahayika till the age of 65 years. However, the petitioner shall not be allowed to claim any benefit available to the para-teachers in future. With the aforesaid observations, WPA No.25927 of 2022 stands disposed of. No order as to costs. All parties are to act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this court.

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

[Rabindranath Samanta, J]