Bimal Laha & Ors vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 1691 Cal/2

OD-4
                                ORDER SHEET

                               WPO/1439/2021

                     IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                       Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction
                              ORIGINAL SIDE


                          BIMAL LAHA & ORS.
                                 -VS-
                  THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS


BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE ARINDAM MUKHERJEE
Date : December 22, 2021.


                                                                          Appearance:
                                            Mr. Debdutta Basu, Adv. for the petitioner.

                                                       Mr. Niladri Bhattacharjee, Adv.
                                                           Ms. Deblina Chattaraj, Adv.
                                                                    . . . for WBTC Ltd.

                              Mr. Subhabrata Datta, Mr. Debashis Sarkar, Mr. Paritosh
                                                      Sinha, Advocates for the State .




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

 record.

           The petitioners are 17 in number. Petitioner nos. 1 to 7 are retired

 employees and petitioner nos. 8 to 17 are the 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

court fees paid is found sufficient. 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 issue sought to be raised in the instant writ petition is

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

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 each 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.)

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