29th Sept., 2026 Item no.D/L 29 Court No. 24 Pradip, A.R.(Ct.) In the High Court at Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side Case No. WPA 24525 of 2026 In the matter of: Antara Das …. Petitioner VS. The State of West Bengal & Ors. ….Respondents For the Petitioner: Ms. Koyel Bag Mr. Sobhan Majumdar ….Advocates For the State: Ms. Koyeli Bhattacharyya Mr. Mainak Chandra ….Advocates 1. Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken on record. 2. The petitioner is aggrieved as she was directed to refund the House Rent Allowance (for short ‘HRA’) paid to her on the ground that the total HRA received by the petitioner and her spouse is beyond the maximum slab fixed by the Government of West Bengal. 3. The case made out by the petitioner is that she works as Assistant Teacher in Sonarpur in the district of South 24-Parganas and her husband is posted as an Assistant Professor in Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan in the district of Birbhum. 4. The distance between the work place of the two spouses is 194.4 kilometers. The same is not commutable on daily basis by using the regular means of transport. 5. In terms of the School Education Department’s Memo No. 955- SE(Law) dated 27th July, 2011 if the distance of work of the spouses is such that they cannot reside together for attending their official duties then full HRA will be payable. Page 2 6. The petitioner submits that she was illegally and arbitrarily directed to refund the HRA amount paid to her. She prays for refund of the HRA amount which was deposited by her through two treasury challans dated 9th February, 2026. 7. The Memo No. 955-SE(Law) dated 27th July, 2011 specifically mentions about payment of full HRA if the spouses are required to reside separately in view of the distance between their work places. Accordingly, the direction passed by the authority upon the petitioner to refund the excess HRA received by her is absolutely bad in law and, is liable to be set aside. 8. The District Inspector of Schools, Secondary Education, South 24 Parganas is directed to recalculate the full HRA of the petitioner. The amount already refunded by the petitioner shall be returned to the petitioner along with interest at the rate of six percent per annum calculated on and from the date it was deposited in the treasury till the date of repayment of the same to the petitioner. 9. The petitioner will be entitled to receive full HRA for the period the spouses reside separately for official purpose. 10. Steps shall be taken in the matter at the earliest. 11. The writ petition stands disposed of. 12. Parties to act on the basis of the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court. 13. Certified server copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance of all requisite formalities. (Amrita Sinha, J.)