Kolkata, 19 September (IANS) A single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court extended the interim stay till January 2026, stopping the West Bengal government from paying the non-teaching staff under a scheme to give stipend to non-teaching employees after a Supreme Court order in April this year.
In particular, in May this year, the West Bengal government issued a notification announced a new scheme under the State Labor Department. Under the ‘Livelihood and Special Security Interim Scheme of West Bengal’, job-defeating group-C staff will be entitled to a monthly stipend of Rs 25,000, while Group D category people will be entitled to a monthly of Rs 20,000.
Announcing the launch of the scheme, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the scheme was planned under the State Labor Department due to a tendency of some people and vested interests to register public interest cases in the Calcutta High Court against any decision of the state government.
However, legal challenges cannot be avoided after gradual petitions filed against the said notification.
On June 20 this year, the same single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha said that the interim was either until September 26 or until the court would give any other direction in the case.
While ordering that interim migration, Justice Sinha then questioned why non-teaching employees who lost this job would get payment from the state government in turn without offering any service to the state government.
The same thing came to light for hearing on the bench of Justice Sinha on Friday, and at the end of the hearing, Justice Sinha extended the interim stay on the payment of stipend by the end of January next year, with the next hearing in the upcoming case only in that month.
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SRC/UK