14th JULY, 2026 Item no.M/L 707 Court No. 24 Pradip, A.R.(Ct.) In the High Court at Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side Case No. WPA 21144 of 2023 In the matter of: Sima Ghosh …. Petitioner VS. The State of West Bengal & Ors. ….Respondents For the Petitioner: Mr. Asish Dutta ….Advocate For the State: Ms. Mary Datta Ms. Sneha Chatterjee ….Advocates 1. The petitioner seeks house rent allowance. 2. She was receiving HRA till January, 2019 but from February 2019 the HRA component was withheld on the ground that her husband was receiving HRA. 3. It is the specific case of the petitioner that her husband does not work in any government organization. He works in a private company. 4. Whether the teacher would be entitled to receive house rent allowance if the spouse receives house rent allowance from the employer has been decided by the Court on 16th March, 2021 in WPA 1389 of 2018 in the matter of Mousumi Biswas & Anr. Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors. 5. The Court was pleased to hold that the employer does not have any right to deduct house rent allowance from the teacher even if the spouse received house rent allowance from the employer of a private organisation. Page 2 6. In view of the law laid down by the Court in the matter of Mousumi Biswas (supra), the respondent authorities cannot withhold house rent allowance of the petitioner as the spouse of the petitioner does not receive house rent allowance from any government organisation. 7. The instant writ petition is disposed of by directing the District Inspector of Schools, Secondary Education, Paschim Medinipur to ascertain as to whether the spouse of the petitioner is working in a government organization or not and to take a decision on the prayer of the petitioner seeking release of her house rent allowance strictly in line with the law laid down by the Court in the matter of Mousumi Biswas (supra). 8. A decision shall be taken at the earliest but positively within a period of twelve weeks from the date of communication of this order. 9. An opportunity of hearing shall be given to the petitioner for production of documents in support of the house rent allowance drawn by her spouse, if any. 10. If the prayer of the petitioner is allowed, then steps for releasing the house rent allowance in favour of the petitioner shall be taken without any further delay. 11. As the petitioner will receive house rent allowance at a delayed point of time, accordingly, the petitioner would be entitled to receive interest on account of the delayed payment. 12. The dues of the petitioner shall be released with interest calculated at the rate of six per cent per annum on and from the due date till the date of actual payment. 13. The writ petition stands disposed of. Page 3 14. Parties to act on the basis of the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court. 15. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance of all requisite formalities. (Amrita Sinha, J.)