Rupa Dey vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 2071 Cal

19.04.2022               IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
 Sl. No.74              CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
   (PP)                       APPELLATE SIDE

                              WPA 6475 of 2022

                               Rupa Dey
                                   Vs.
                      The State of West Bengal & Ors.


                  Mr.    Srinjay Sengupta,
                  Mr.    Saurav Roy,
                  Mr.    Narattam Acharyya,
                  Mr.    Ankush Ghosh
                                                 ....for the petitioner.

                  Mr. Suman Dey
                                                       ....for the State.

                  Ms. Deblina Chattaraj
                                                           ....for WBTC.


                  Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken
             on record.

                  The petitioner's husband was an employee of
             Calcutta Tramways Company (1978) Ltd. (in short
             "CTC")     now     known    as   West   Bengal   Transport
             Corporation (in short "WBTC"), who died on 26th
             June, 2021 while he was in service. The petitioner
             claims interest on delayed payment of benefits under
             the Revision of Pay and Allowance Rules, 1998 (in
             short "ROPA 1998") which was payable to her
             husband. The principal amount appears to have been
             paid to the petitioner's husband on diverse dates upto
             2008. Till the petitioner's husband retired from
             services     the    claim    for   interest    was   alive.
             Unfortunately, petitioner's husband died prior to
             superannuation. There is as such no inordinate delay
             or laches on the part of the petitioner in claiming the
             interest or in approaching the Court with such claim.
                      2




     The issue sought to be raised in the instant writ
petition is squarely covered by a recent judgment and
order of this Court dated 14th 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

scheduled date of payment of the amounts paid to the petitioner's husband under ROPA 1998 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 petitioner within a period of six 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 six 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.)