DISTRICT INSPECTOR OF SCHOOL Vs. CHITTARANJAN ROY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal has been preferred by a functionary of the State being the District Inspector of School (SE), North 24 Parganas challenging an order dtd. 11/3/2025 passed by the learned single Judge in a writ petition being WPA 3871 of 1978 which was preferred by the appellant, namely, Chittaranjan Roy (in short, Chitta) primarily challenging a memo dtd. 11/5/1978 issued by the Secretary, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (hereinafter referred to as the Board) towards reinstatement of one Sri Mani Krishna Bhakta (in short, Mani) to the post of Headmaster of the Mahanayak Nehru Colony Naba Bharati Siksha Niketan (Junior High School) (hereinafter referred to as the said school) and to treat his absence from school as qualifying service. By the order impugned the learned single Judge directed the Secretary of the Board and the functionaries of the State being the Director of School Education and the appellant herein 'to treat the period of absence of the writ petitioner from his duty i.e. from February, 1985 to the date of his superannuation as spent on duty' giving the benefit of revision of scale of pay. The said respondents were further directed 'to calculate the entire arrears towards salary of the writ petitioner that is from February, 1985 to his actual date of superannuation forthwith' and to disburse the entire admissible arrears towards salary in four equal monthly instalments. The respondents were also directed to disburse admissible pension and in the event for any reason whatsoever the pension cannot be disbursed, the writ petitioner shall be paid provisional pension positively from the month of May, 2025.

(2.) For adjudication of the dispute the following dates would be necessary:

(3.) Mr. Prasad learned advocate appearing for the appellant submits that the writ petition was filed in the year 1978 and was disposed of about 47 years thereafter by the order impugned in the present appeal. It would appear from the records that Chitta received salaries from the date of his appointment to the post of Headmaster with effect 20/12/1976 till the month of January, 1985 and that he did not render any service in the said school after January, 1985 till he attained the age of superannuation on 31/5/2004. Though the writ petition was pending, proper steps were not taken by Chitta to apprise the Court that he was being forcibly restrained from entering the school. Upon such cessation of employer employee relationship and with the efflux of time, the writ petition, in fact, became infructuous. However, surprisingly, when the writ petition came up for hearing about twenty-one years thereafter on 25/2/2025, life was infused into an infructuous writ petition granting liberty to Chitta to amend the prayer of the writ petition and pursuant to such direction Chitta incorporated prayers to the effect that the period from the month of February, 1985 till his superannuation should be treated as spent on duty and the back wages should be disbursed to him pertaining to the said period. The scope of the said writ petition could not have been enhanced on the basis of an order granting leave to Chitta for amending the prayers.