Dr. Arindam Ray Vs State of West Bengal and Ors. — Calcutta HC (2026) — LawSathi Research

Dr. Arindam Ray Vs State of West Bengal and Ors. — Calcutta HC (2026) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Substantial relief: the petitioner's resignation stands accepted with effect from 01.05.2025, subject only to integrity clearance from the State Vigilance Commission, West Bengal and similar clearance from the Vigilance Branch, Health and Family Welfare Department; the authorities were directed to move expeditiously and complete the exercise preferably within four weeks of receipt/production of a copy of the order. The writ petition was disposed of, and the pending O.A. 646 of 2025 before the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal also stands disposed of as futile.

Issue for consideration

Acceptance of the petitioner's resignation application (prayer dated 28.04.2025), whose non-acceptance constituted the substantial claim in the writ petition. +1 more

Court's answer

There being no dispute between the parties, the court found the State's stand acceptable: the Competent Authority has already decided to accept the petitioner's resignation with effect from 01.05.2025, subject only to the requisite clearances; accordingly, the relief claimed in the proceeding is substantially infructuous.

Ratio / Principle

The time limit indicated by the authority (3 to 4 months) for obtaining the requisite clearances manifests a casual approach of the respondents and was found by the court to be unreasonable/excessive.

Key takeaways

The authority should move expeditiously for obtaining the clearance in terms of the communication dated 08.01.2026.ratio¶12
The authority is to make all endeavours to complete the exercise of obtaining the requisite clearances preferably within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt/production of a copy of the order.ratio¶14

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Dr. Arindam Ray v. The State of West Bengal and others, W.P.S.T.249 of 2025 (decision dated 19th January, 2026; coram: Madhuresh Prasad and Prasenjit Biswas, JJ.). The writ petition challenged the non-acceptance of the petitioner's resignation prayer dated 28.04.2025, he serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of General Medicine, Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura. In the course of the hearing, the State handed over a communication dated 08.01.2026 (Memo No.ME/CC-30-2025/M/41) issued under the signature of the Director of Medical Education, West Bengal, recording the Competent Authority's decision to accept the resignation with effect from 01.05.2025, subject only to integrity clearance from the State Vigilance Commission, West Bengal and similar clearance from the Vigilance Branch, Health and Family Welfare Department. Finding the relief thereby substantially infructuous, the court nonetheless held the authority's indicated timeline of 3 to 4 months for obtaining the clearances to be unreasonable/excessive and manifesting a casual approach, and directed the authority to move expeditiously and complete the exercise preferably within four weeks from receipt/production of a copy of the order. The writ petition was disposed of, and the pending O.A. 646 of 2025 before the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal was also disposed of as futile and of no useful purpose.

19^th January, 2026 (D/L No.45) Ct. No.4 (SKB)

W.P.S.T.249 of 2025

Dr. Arindam Ray Versus The State of West Bengal and others

Mr. Sankha Ghosh, Mr. M. N. Roy, Mr. G. Haldar

… for the petitioner.

Mr. Rajat Dutta, Ms. Aaishani Mukhopadhyay

… for the State.

The substantial claim of the petitioner in this proceeding is regarding non-acceptance of his application for resignation.

The learned advocate for the State has handed over to the court a copy of communication dated 08.01.2026 sent to him. The communication issued under the signature of the Director of Medical Education, West Bengal bearing Memo No.ME/CC-30-2025/M/41 contains instruction that the Competent Authority in the department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, has already decided to accept the resignation prayer dated 28.04.2025 of the petitioner serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of General Medicine, Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura. The same

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has been accepted with effect from 01.05.2025 but is now subject only to obtaining integrity clearance from the State Vigilance Commission, West Bengal and similar clearance to be issued by the Vigilance Branch, Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal. The letter in unequivocal terms states that necessary action for obtaining the vigilance clearance is being taken.

To this extent, there is no dispute between the parties and we also find that the stand to be acceptable. The relief claimed in the proceeding is, therefore, substantially infructuous. However, we find that the authority has expressed that it may take 3 to 4 months for obtaining the above noted requisite clearance. The letter does not specify why it will take such a long time. The time limit specified therefore appears to be manifesting a casual approach of the respondents. We found the expected time (3 to 4 months) to be unreasonable/excessive. 4. We, therefore, consider it appropriate that the authority should move expeditiously for obtaining the clearance in terms of the communication dated 08.01.2026 and make all endeavours to complete the exercise preferably

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within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order.

The writ petition is, thus, disposed of.

The relief being substantially allowed, there is no dispute between the parties that pendency of O.A. 646 of 2025 before the

West Bengal Administrative Tribunal would be futile and serve no useful purpose. Accordingly, the O.A.646 of 2025 also stands disposed of.

(Madhuresh Prasad, J.)

(Prasenjit Biswas, J.)