State Of West Bengal & Ors vs Rani Kisku

Re: CAN 1018 of 2020 & CAN 1019 of 2020

There are two applications, one for condonation of delay and another for stay of operation of the impugned order. In a writ petition filed by the private

respondent praying, inter alia, for family pension, the learned Single Judge decided the matter on merits by an order dated 28th June, 2016, by which

the respondent authorities were directed to condone the deficiency of 26 days in qualifying service of the petitioner’s deceased husband and to

issue the pension payment order and to disburse the benefits of family pension along with all arrears in terms of the Government order dated 12th July,

2011 in favour of the writ petitioner. The learned Single Judge recorded in the order that in spite of directions for exchange of affidavits till 28th June,

2016 no affidavit-in-opposition has been filed by the respondents.

However, submission appears to have been made on behalf of the State respondents which are different from the submissions now sought to be made

before us. At this stage, we are concerned with the delay of 1273 days in presenting the memorandum of appeal. For almost three years, the widow

was not paid in terms of the order passed by the learned Single Judge. When a contempt proceeding was initiated the appellants filed an application

for recalling of the order dated 28th June, 2016. The said application was devoid of merits and not in proper form and the learned Single Judge had

rightly dismissed the said application by an order dated 15th November, 2019. A separate appeal has now been preferred against the said order with a

prayer for condonation of delay as the said appeal was presented after 54 days.

Mr. Joytosh Majumder, learned Government Pleader appearing on behalf of the appellants has candidly submitted that relevant circulars had not been

brought to the notice of the learned Single Judge and the defence of the appellants have not been properly presented to the learned Single Judge.

However, the explanation for not preferring the appeal for three years is extremely sketchy. Had there been no prima facie substance in the argument

advanced by the learned Government Pleader, we would have dismissed the appeal and the application with exemplary costs.

Since we are of the view that the appeal needs to be heard in view of the West Bengal Recognized Non-Governmental Educational Institutions

Employees Death-cum-Retirement Scheme, 1981 read with memorandum dated 1st November, 2010 where different set of rules have been indicated

regarding qualifying service to be considered for pension and family pension, we allow the prayer for condonation of delay upon payment of costs of

Rs.15,000/- to be paid by the Principal Secretary, Department of School Education, Bikash Bhavan, out of his own salary to be recovered by him from

the person/persons responsible for such delay in preferring the appeal. Under no circumstances this costs shall be paid out of the Government fund.

This order shall be complied with within a period of two weeks from date.

There shall be an unconditional stay of operation of the order for a period of two weeks, in default of making payment of costs, the impugned order

shall revive and the contempt proceedings shall also revive.

In the event the costs is paid in terms of this order, the impugned appeal shall remain stayed till the disposal of the appeal.

The disbursement shall be made by ECS to the account of the writ petitioner details of which to be furnished to the office of the Government Pleader

by Friday.

The application for condonation of delay and the application for stay stand disposed of.

Re: MAT 150 of 2020

The appellants shall prepare and file requisite number of informal paper books, printed, typewritten or cyclostyled, as the case may be, out of Court,

within four weeks from the date.

The Department, however, shall not accept the paper books without proof of payment of costs and a compliance report should be produced along with

the paper books at the time of hearing.

Mr. Uttam Kumar Roy appearing on behalf of the writ petitioner/respondent waives service of notice of appeal.

All formalities regarding preparation of paper books are dispensed with, but the learned counsel for the appellants is directed to incorporate all the

relevant documents in the informal paper books.

Copy of the paper books shall be served upon Mr. Uttam Kumar Roy immediately after preparation of the paper books and in any event within one

week from the date of filing of the paper books in the Department.

The appeal shall be listed fairly ‘at the top’ after six weeks under the heading “Hearingâ€​.