Pankaj Kumar Gupta vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 5044 Cal

Ct. 05 Item No.186 24.09.2021 (suvendu)

WPA 8673 OF 2021

(VIA VIDEO CONFERENCE)

Pankaj Kumar Gupta Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Banshi Badan Maity ..............for the petitioner Mr. Anirudha Mohanta ...............for the State

Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken

on record.

Petitioner is a retired Head Teacher who retired

on superannuation with effect from 31 st October,

2013 and the Pension Payment Order was issued on

16th July, 2014 thereby releasing retiral dues in

favour of the writ petitioner. Pursuant to the said

Pension Payment Order, disbursement was made in

favour of the writ petitioner on 30th September, 2014.

Writ petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of

gratuity.

The entitlement of the writ petitioner to interest

on delayed payment of gratuity due to

superannuation 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 17 th 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 gratuity from the

date following the date of retirement of the writ

petitioner till the date of actual disbursement of the

gratuity amount, 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.

All parties to act on the server copy of this

order downloaded from the official website of this

Hon'ble Court.

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.)