Kasturi Barat vs State Of West Bengal & Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 3045 Cal

S/L 91
30.4.2021
Court No.26
SD
                                 WPA 8973 of 2021
                               (Via Video Conference)

                                     Kasturi Barat
                                          Vs.
                              State of West Bengal & Ors.


              Mr. Biswajit Mal
                                                        ... for the Petitioner.

                    Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept with the

              record.

                    The petitioner was an Assistant Teacher of a High

              School who retired on 31.5.2018. The first pension payment

              order was issued on 08.5.2018.      Under the ROPA Rules,

              2009 there was revision of the pensionary and gratuity

              amount payable to the petitioner.       The revised pension

              payment order was issued on 19.10.2020 and the revised

              gratuity amount was disbursed on 04.11.2020 in terms of

              ROPA, 2009.      The petitioner claims interest on delayed

              payment of the revised gratuity amount.

                    There is a considerable delay in filing of the writ

              petition, which the petitioner seeks to justify by stating that

              there is no statutory period of limitation and neither parties

              have suffered due to this delay. It is the submission of the

              petitioner that accordingly the petition should be allowed.

              The petitioner relies upon an order in W.P. 17557 (W) of 2017

              (Narayan Chandra Saha vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.)

              wherein a co-ordinate Bench had relied upon the Supreme

              Court judgment in the case of Union of India vs. Tarsem
                                  2




Singh, reported in (2008) 8 SCC 648 on the issue of

limitation relating to payment or refixation of pay or pension

wherein the Apex Court had held that relief may be granted

in spite of delay as it does not affect the rights of the third

party.

         In view of the above and after hearing the learned

Counsel for the parties, I direct the Director of Pension,

Provident Fund and Group Insurance, Government of West

Bengal as also the concerned Treasury Officer to pay interest

to the petitioner @ 8% per annum on the revised gratuity

amount calculated on and from 01.7.2018 till the date of

actual payment. Such payment is to be made within a period

of eight weeks from the date of communication of this order.

         With these observations, the writ petition is disposed

of.

         Since, no affidavit-in-opposition has been called for,

the allegations made in the writ petition are deemed to

have not been admitted by the respondents.

There will be no order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if

applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis.

(Shekhar B. Saraf, J.)