Kolkata, March 3 The contractual staff employees associated with the different municipalities in West Bengal whose appointments were made without the prior concurrence of the state government will not be entitled to retirement benefits, Calcutta High Court ordered on Monday.
The single-judge bench of Justice Kausik Chanda observed that appointment of employees in the different municipalities requires the concurrences of both the municipal boards concerned as well as from the state government.
However, it has come to notice that there had been several instances of contractual employment in different municipalities in West Bengal, mostly done during the previous Left Front regime, which were done only with the concurrence of the municipal boards concerned and not from the state government.
In such cases, Justice Chandra observed that such contractual employees appointed without the consent of the state government will not be entitled to post-retirement benefits, since post-appointments the posts concerned were not regularised by availing consent from the state government.
Justice Chanda made this observation while giving his verdict on a case filed by the family members of a deceased individual who was a contractual staff at a school run by Raiganj Municipality in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal.
After his death, his family members approached the Calcutta High Court seeking pension and other post-retirement benefits. However, the counsels of Raiganj Municipality argued that the contractual employees of the municipalities would be entitled to post-retirement benefits provided their appointments are regularised following the approval of the state government.
The single-judge bench finally accepted their arguments and ruled that such municipality employees will not be entitled to post-retirement benefits.
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