The high court on Friday directed the Bengal school education department to disburse pension and other retirement benefits due for 21 years to the family of a clerk who had retired from a North 24-Parganas higher secondary school, along with 18 per cent interest, in three weeks.

A division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Saugata Bhattacharya also directed the department to file a compliance report before the court after three weeks.

The clerk had died in 1997 within a few days of his retirement. But his wife did not get family pension even after a division bench of the high court had ordered in 2018 to clear the dues to the widow of Ranajit Ranjan Roy, the clerk.

Champa, the elder daughter of Roy, who retired from Sukhchar Satadaal Balika Vidyabharati of Sodepur, had contacted the respective school authorities for early disbursement of the pension and other benefits to the family.

But the plea had fallen on deaf ears. Since the non-teaching employee was the only earning member of the family, Champa and her widow mother, along with three brothers and a sister, were facing a tough time.

“Champa waited till 2001 and then filed a plea before the district inspector of the school. The DI had forwarded the case to the school education department in 2011. But the department also failed to take any step and my client had no other option than to move the high court in 2018,” said Firdaus Shamim, the lawyer appearing for Champa.

In 2108, the high court had directed the education department to disburse the due family pension and retirement benefits, along with 18 per cent interest at the earliest.

“But even after the order, the department did not disburse the amount and Champa had to move a contempt case,” said the lawyer said.