GOURI RANI DAS Vs. COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ application is directed against the judgment and order dated 17.3.2006 passed by the State Administrative Tribunal, West Bengal in O.A. No. 39 of 2005 dismissing the application thereby. Being aggrieved by the said order of dismissal, the writ applicant has filed the writ case.

(2.) The factual matrix of the case is that late Pipin Chandra Das @ Bipin Chandra Das was a constable of the Kolkata Police and he died-in- harness on 1.12.2003. Then his wife Gouri Rani Das prayed for releasing the retiral benefits in her favour. The Respondent Authority did not release the same in her favour. Then she filed the O.A. case before the learned Tribunal which passed the impugned order of dismissal of the application.

(3.) Having considered the rival contentions of both the parties, we find that the late Pipin Chandra Das @ Bipin Chandra Das was a constable in the Kolkata Police and he died in harness on 1.12.2003. After the death of the deceased constable when rival claims surfaced, the Respondent Authority conducted an enquiry and came to know that the deceased constable contracted marriage twice during subsistence of the first marriage without obtaining dissolution of the earlier marriage and that the writ applicant is the third wife of the deceased constable. It also came to light that the mother of the deceased constable, Smt. Baisakhi Das is still alive. Smt. Tulu Bala Das @ Puspa Bala Das was the first wife and she died on 10.05.1981 leaving her son, Ramani Das, out of the said wedlock. In 1970, the deceased constable married, for the second time, one Ketani Das who was subsequently married to one Nagendra Das in 1980 without obtaining any divorce from the deceased constable. The deceased constable married the writ applicant for third time on 14.6.1978. The second wife has no child by the deceased constable. Two daughters namely, Shrabani Das @ Samanta and Chaitali Das were born out of the wedlock between the deceased constable and the writ applicant.