Sambuddha Chakrabarti, J. - (1.) The petitioner was an employee of North Bengal State Transport Corporation (Corporation, for short). He retired from his service on December 31, 2016.
(2.) The Corporation issued a departmental circular to its employees for exercising their options for either the Contributory Provident Fund (CPF, for short) Scheme or the General Provident Fund (GPF, for short) Scheme. The petitioner exercised his option under the CPF. However, the accounts officer used to deduct an amount from the salary of the petitioner under the GPF and it continued from May, 2000 till December, 2016. It is the allegation of the petitioner that after he had exercised his option under the CPF the accounts officer could not deduct the amount under the GPF which is clearly against the option exercised by him. It is all the more so as the respondent Corporation deducted the amount under the GPF without giving any notice to the petitioner rendering such deduction for the GPF to be entirely arbitrary and mala fide. On April, 10 and April, 17, 2017, the petitioner made representations before the Managing Director of the Corporation, i.e., the respondent no. 4 as well as to the Chairman, i.e., the respondent no. 3 to pay the GPF amount as early as possible. After his retirement the Corporation did neither make any payment under the CPF or the GPF and as such the authority is withholding the retiral benefits in violation of his rights protected under the Constitution of India. The petitioner has further alleged that in April, 2014, he joined the Islampur Depot as Mechanic-in-Charge and he discharged his duty till his retirement. The petitioner is entitled to get all the benefits for discharging his duties there as per the Service Rules which the respondents did not pay.
(3.) Since the representations made by the petitioner did not produce any result he had approached this Court, inter alia, praying for a direction upon the respondents to make payment of the retiral benefits under the GPF with interest, a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to make payment to the petitioner for discharging duties as Mechanic-inCharge for the period he did his duties at the Islampur bus depot and for other ancillary reliefs.;