Subodh Chowdhury vs The State West Bengal & Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 1422 Cal

255   12.02.2021                        WPA 3754 of 2021
Dd
Ct.
15
                                       Subodh Chowdhury
                                             Vs
                                  The State 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 31.01.2006. The first

                   pension payment order was issued on 11.05.2006. 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

                   27.11.2012 and the revised gratuity and arrear pension

                   amount was disbursed on 15.01.2013 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
                       2




of West 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.)