12.08.2026 33 sdas WPA 19563 of 2026 Smt. Jharna Mandal Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors. Mr. Bidhayak Lahiri Ms. Bhaswati Lahiri .….. for the petitioner Mr. Sukanta Ghosh Mr. Sagnik Roy Chowdhury ……for the State 1. Let affidavit-of-service, as filed in Court, be kept on record. 2. The petitioner was employed as a Female Health Worker (ANM). She joined sometime in 1983 and after getting the requisite benefits under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) was promoted as a Health Supervisor (Female) in September, 2006. 3. The petitioner is aggrieved that the persons, junior to her, have been promoted to the same post, after her, with a higher scale of pay. She accordingly seeks pay protection of her salary and entitlement at par with other persons who are similarly situated. In fact, she has produced an order dated February 24, 2023, copy whereof is kept on record, whereby another similarly situated person has been granted higher Pay Grade, at par with one Manisha Mukherjee. 4. The petitioner’s representations dated September 5, 2014, December 28, 2020, July 22, 2021 and August 2 23, 2023, for pay protection have not yet been considered. 5. The concerned Officer, being respondent no. 2 herein, is directed to treat the writ petition as representation, copy whereof will be served on respondent no. 2 by August 20, 2026, and dispose it of in the light of the pay protection available to such Government employees and particularly in line with the Pay Grade of Manisha Mukherjee and Chitra Patra, who are similarly situated with the petitioner, by passing a reasoned order within a period of six weeks from the date of service of a copy of this order. 6. The resultant order will be communicated to the petitioner within a period of one week thereafter. 7. Since the petitioner has retired from service, if found eligible, she will be entitled to the notional benefits of pay protection which will be considered in addition to the arrears salary, if any. 8. With the aforestated directions, the writ petition is disposed of. 9. There will be no order as to costs. 10. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance of all requisite formalities. (Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.)