Sudhansu Sekhar Khutia vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 1418 Cal

220   12.02.2021                          WPA 3582 of 2021
Dd
Ct.
15

                                      Sudhansu Sekhar Khutia
                                                Vs
                                   The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Goutam Kumar Maity ... for the Petitioner



                            Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept with

                   the record.

                            The petitioner was an Assistant Teacher of a

                   Primary School who retired on 31.07.2008. The first

                   pension payment order was issued on 11.09.2009 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

                   28.05.2013 and the revised gratuity and arrear pension

                   amount was disbursed on 13.06.2013 in terms of ROPA,

                   2009. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of

                   the revised gratuity and arrear pension 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
                        2




Bengal & Ors.) wherein a coordinate Bench had relied

upon the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Union of

India vs. Tarmen 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 and arrear pension amount calculated on and

from 1.06.2009 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.

         This writ petition is, thus, 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.

(Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.)