Sabita Bhattacharyya v. Union Of India And ORS

Court No. 24 WPA 9648 of 2020 17.12.2020 Sabita Bhattacharyya Vs.

Union of India & Ors.

(DL 34) (S. Banerjee) Mr. Kumarjyoti Tewari Ms. Rajlakshmi Ghatak ... for the petitioner Mr. Arijit Bakshi ... for the respondents The petitioner prays for arrear pension which was due and payable to her husband.

The late husband of the petitioner was an employee of the Indian Museum, Kolkata. He retired from service on 18th September, 1975 and he expired on 11th June, 2016. After his death his widow, i.e., the petitioner herein, applied for family pension. On scrutiny of the papers of the petitioner it was revealed that there was certain anomaly in the calculation of the basic pension of the deceased husband. The authorities were of the opinion that there has been an under-payment of pension amounting to Rs. 57.25 lac to the employee which was presently payable to the widow.

The matter was placed before the Finance Committee for consideration and sanction of arrear pension to the widow as per rules.

The grievance of the petitioner is that even though the Finance Committee took a resolution for payment of arrear pension in her favour, the money on account of arrear pension has been disbursed till date.

The learned counsel representing the Indian Museum submits that the final calculation initially mentioned as Rs. 57.25 lac was erroneous and the correct calculation will amount to Rs. 53,78,853/- only. It has been submitted that the aforesaid amount will be released in favour of the petitioner at the earliest.

As the authorities have already taken a decision for releasing the arrear pension of the employee to his widow, no useful purpose will be served by keeping the writ petition pending.

The instant writ petition is accordingly disposed of by directing the respondent no. 4, being the Chairman of the Finance Committee, to take all necessary steps to ensure that the arrear pension is released in favour of the petitioner at the earliest, but positively within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of a copy of this order.

WPA 9648 of 2020 is disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties after completion of usual legal formalities.

(Amrita Sinha, J.)