Dilip Kumar Dutta And Ors vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 1539 Cal/2

OD-4
                               ORDER SHEET

                              WPO/1247/2021

                     IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                       Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction
                              ORIGINAL SIDE


                      DILIP KUMAR DUTTA AND ORS
                                 -VS-
                  THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS


BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE ARINDAM MUKHERJEE
Date : December 8, 2021.


                                                                    Appearance:
                                                         Mr. Debdutta Basu, Adv.

                                                   Mr. Niladri Bhattacharjee, Adv.
                                                      Ms. Deblina Chattaraj, Adv.

                                                  Ms. Chaitali Bhattacharya, Adv.
                                               Mr. Subhendu Roychoudhury, Adv.



           The Court : Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken on

 record.

           The petitioners are 19 in number. Petitioner nos. 1 to 15 are

 retired employees and petitioner nos. 16 to 19 are existing employees of

 Calcutta Tramways Company (1978) Ltd. (in short "CTC") now known as

 West Bengal Transport Corporation (in short "WBTC"). They have joined in

 the instant writ petition to ventilate their individual independent cause

 pertaining to identical issue against the same set of respondents. The

petitioners claim interest on delayed payment of benefits under the

Revision of Pay and Allowance Rules, 1998 (in short "ROPA 1998") which

is applicable to them.

The court fees paid is found to be sufficient.

The issue sought to be raised in the instant writ petition is

squarely covered by a recent judgment and order of this Court dated 14th

September, 2021 passed in WPA 7490 of 2021 (Vivekananda Halder &

Ors. v. The State of West Bengal & Ors.).

As such, this writ petition is disposed of with the similar directions

as rendered in the above mentioned writ petition, which are as follows:-

The respondents shall pay interest from the date of accrual of the

amounts claimed in respect of the petitioners till 2008 or till the date of

actual payment of such arrears, whichever is earlier, less interest, if any,

already paid, at the rate of 7% per annum to the petitioners within a

period of four months from the date of communication of a server copy of

this order without insisting upon production of a certified copy.

In default of payment of the aforesaid interest within a period of

four months, the rate of interest shall increase to 8 per cent.

There shall be no order as to costs.

Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given

to the parties, upon compliance of necessary formalities.

(ARINDAM MUKHERJEE, J.)

RS