Calcutta High Court took 14 years to decide that it would not hear a case relating to the service benefit of a state government employee and that the matter should be disposed of by the State Administrative Tribunal.

The “delay” cost K.P. Malakar, a former deputy director in the state school education department, Rs 2.5 lakh as legal expenses and caused him to suffer “mental agony” over the past 14 years.

Malakar, now 73, first moved the high court in 1994 challenging the state government’s order reducing the retirement age of secretaries from 60 to 58 years.

As a deputy director in the school education department, Malakar’s rank was equivalent to that of a state government secretary.

The case was heard by Justice Samaresh Banerjee, who asked the government to fix the retirement age of Malakar at 60. But the state did not carry out the order, prompting the official to file a contempt case.

While the case was being heard, the state had on August 1995 appointed Malakar as principal of David Hare Training College. Malakar turned 60 in June 1996 but the state asked him to continue in service as the contempt case he had filed was pending.

Three years later, Malakar moved another petition saying he did not want to continue in service and prayed that the government be asked to pay his retirement benefits. The court ordered the government to clear Malakar’s dues.

“The government issued me a cheque in front of the judge. Though I discovered that my dues had been wrongly calculated and that I had been paid Rs 6 lakh less, I received the cheque without prejudice and lodged a complaint with the court,” Malakar recalled.

When the complaint came up for hearing before Justice Pratap Kumar Roy in August 2008, state counsel claimed that the high court had no jurisdiction to hear the case and that it should be disposed of by the state administrative tribunal.

Accepting the state lawyer’s submission, Justice Roy ruled that the high court could not hear the case and that all orders passed by court in the case since 1996 were “null and void”. The judge sent the matter to the tribunal.

“The tribunal will decide whether the amount already paid (to Malakar) should be refunded and whether he is entitled to get more,” the judge ruled. “I am now 73 and do not have the strength to fight any more legal battles. I have suffered enough mental agony and spent over Rs 2.5 lakh fighting the case in the high court,” Malakar said.