Post offices have sacred duty to uphold citizens' trust built over decades: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered a local post office in Burnpur to pay an amount of ₹6,99,500 to the kin of a slain army personnel who was duped by an agent of the post office agent of money invested in a Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and a fixed deposit. [Sulekha Chatterjee v. Union of India]..Justice Shekhar Saraf also condemned the conduct of the post office agent and other officials responsible for the fraud, stating in his order,"Post office, in many cases, do not only act as the nation’s preferred carrier of words and emotions, but also serve as the guardian of its savings. It is the trust that has been built over decades that citizens place on their local post offices and it is the sacred duty of the postal department to forever and continuously uphold that trust.".The breach of this trust held by a post office can also affect the trust of the citizenry towards the postal system, which is the lifeblood of the Indian republic at large, the Court added. .It went on to note that the courage shown by the family of the persons who build the country's defences is no less than the ones that man it. That courage needs to be respected and rewarded, the judge said..The Court was dealing with a writ petition filed by the wife of an overseer in the Border Road Organization who was engaged in the “construction of ‘Basoli Bani’ highway in Jammu & Kashmir. The petitioner's husband died in a bomb blast in September 2003.The petitioner later received nearly ₹13 lakh as compensation under various schemes from the State and Central governments. From this amount, about ₹7 lakh was invested by the petitioner in a post office MIS and a fixed deposit in 2010. She received monthly installments until June 2012. However, after these installment payments were halted, she eventually discovered that the MIS agent had committed fraud and diverted the investment fund. Requests for a refund of ₹ 4.99 lakh from the post office was met with no response, prompting the petitioner to approach the High Court for relief.Before the High Court, the postal authorities claimed that the MIS agent was employed by the West Bengal government. Hence, the post office contended that it was not liable for the fraud committed..The Court, however, dismissed this stance, terming it nothing but an attempt to shrug off their legal and ethical responsibility to compensate the petitioner.It concluded that the fraud had taken place with the connivance of post office officials. "This Court, in the strongest possible terms, condemns the actions of the postal agent and other officials from the post office who were involved in the entire scheme of fraud in the instant case. This Court, also expresses its regret at the unnecessary and undue suffering caused to the petitioners for no fault of their own," the order stated..With these observations, the Court ordered the authorities settle the petitioner's claim by paying her ₹6.99 lakh. .Advocates Sanjoy Mukherjee and Jayabrata Mukherjee appeared for the petitioner.Advocates Indrani Chokraborty and Sarda Jha represented the State..[Read Judgment]