HC directs West Bengal Govt to accept Associate Professor's resignation to join IIT Kharagpur's research centre

The court found the refusal of the Health and Family Welfare department to release the professor due to a shortage of personnel in the West Bengal Medical Education Services (WBMES) as "non est" in the eye of the law.

The Division Bench, comprising Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Madhuresh Prasad, directed the authorities to accept the resignation and release him within 24 hours. The petitioner, an associate professor had resigned from his post at the College of Medicine and Sagar Dutta Hospital in Kamarhati to take up a position as an associate professor in radio diagnosis at the research centre at IIT Kharagpur, reports Millenniumpost. 

The professor had tendered his resignation on November 4 last year, with an effective date of December 1, to pursue better opportunities at IIT Kharagpur. However, the Director of State Medical Education rejected the resignation, citing a shortage of personnel under the WBMES. 

The professor challenged the order at the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal, which failed to provide an effective remedy. Given that IIT Kharagpur had provided a last extension until April 30, the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court exercised its discretionary writ jurisdiction in the case. The Advocate General, representing the state, tried to justify the decision to reject the resignation citing public interest as a reason. The Bench noted that this raised larger questions about who was responsible for the accumulation of a large number of vacancies and whether the state could deprive its employees of better career options due to a lack of personnel, reports the Daily.

The judgment mentioned that the shortage in WBMES was repeatedly used to justify the refusal to accept resignations in at least four similar instances. In all four cases, the court reviewed the West Bengal Service Rules. It consistently held that the appointing authority has no absolute discretion to refuse resignation once the application is made and the request aligns with the West Bengal Service Rules.

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