Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Apurba Bhattacharya vs The State Of West Bengal And Others on 8 October, 2021
Ct. 05
08.10.2021
TN
WPA 14295 of 2021
(VIA VIDEO CONFERENCE)
Apurba Bhattacharya
Vs.
The State of West Bengal and others
Mrs. Sabita Khutia (Bhunya)
..............for the petitioner
Mr. Arun Kumar Roy,
Mr. Bhaskar Chakraborty
....for the State
Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken
on record.
The writ petitioner is a retired assistant
teacher, who superannuated on 30th September,
2018. After superannuation of the writ petitioner,
first Pension Payment Order issued on 5th
September, 2018 and as per the first Pension
Payment Order disbursement of retiral benefit was
made on 21st November, 2018. Subsequently, due
to revision of pay as per ROPA 2009 revised
Pension Payment Order was issued on 8th
February, 2021 and disbursement as per revised
Pension Payment Order was made 27th February,
2021. The writ petitioner claims interest on
delayed payment of gratuity as per revised Pension
Payment Order.
The entitlement of the writ petitioner to interest
on delayed payment of gratuity due to
superannuation of the writ petitioner has already
been decided in the writ petition being WP No.
4600(W) of 2019 (Rabindra Kumar Bhattacharjee
vs. State of West Bengal and Ors.) wherein upon
placing reliance on judgment of the Apex Court in
the case of Union of India vs. Tarsem Singh,
reported in (2008) 8 SCC 648 on condoning delay in
approaching the Court for payment of interest on
gratuity the said writ petition was allowed by
extending the benefit on delayed payment of gratuity
upon due consideration of the fact that there is no
accrual of third party interest and mater relates to
payment of retiral dues.
Taking note of the observations made by the
coordinate Bench in the order dated 17th April, 2019
passed in WP No. 4600(W) of 2019 (Rabindra
Kumar Bhattacharjee vs. State of West Bengal
and Ors.) this Court finds it apposite to grant
interest on gratuity to the writ petitioner due to delay
in releasing the said amount.
Accordingly, the Director of Pension,
Provident Fund and Group Insurance and the
concerned Treasury Officer are directed to pay
interest at the rate of Rs.8% per annum to the writ
petitioner on delayed payment of revised gratuity as
per revised Pension Payment Order from 14th
February, 2020 till the date of actual disbursement
of the revised gratuity amount in favour of the writ
petitioner, within a period of eight weeks from the
date of communication of this order.
Since no affidavit is called for the allegations
contained in the writ petition are deemed not to have
been admitted.
With the above observation, the writ petition
stands disposed of.
There shall be no order as to costs.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order,
if applied for, is to be given to the parties upon
compliance with the necessary formalities.
(Saugata Bhattacharyya, J.)
