Partha Sarathi Ghosh vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 2426 Cal

   Ct. 05
Item No.10
28.04.2022
 (suvendu)


                            WPA 6978 of 2022

                           [Via Video Conference]
                       Partha Sarathi Ghosh
                                 Vs.
                   The State of West Bengal & Ors.


                     Ms. Sima Ghosh
                                            .........for the petitioner
                     Mr. D. Chattopadhyay
                     Mr. Tirthankar Basu
                                               ..........for the State




                      Affidavit of service filed in court is kept
             with the record.
                      The material facts of the case are admitted
             and hence I have not called for affidavits.
                      The petitioner was a librarian of a Library
             of Sainthia High School under West Bengal Board
             of Secondary Education in the district of Birbhum
             and he retired on 31. 01.2017. The first pension
             payment order was issued on 20.02.2020. Under
             the ROPA Rules, 2019 there was revision of the
             pensionary and gratuity amount payable to the
             petitioner.    The revised pension payment order
             was issued on 21.02.2022 and the arrear pension
             and gratuity was disbursed on 24.02.2022 in
             terms of ROPA, 2019.         The petitioner claims
             interest on delayed payment of the first arrear
             pension along with revised arear pension and
             revised gratuity.
                      I have heard learned counsel for both
             parties and I have considered the orders passed by
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this court in similar facts.      It is settled law that
retired employee is entitled to some amount of
interest on delayed payment of arrear pension and
revised gratuity.
         There is 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                WP
17557(W) of 2017 (Narayan Chandra Saha V. State
of West Bengal & Ors.) wherein a coordinate Bench
had relied upon the Supreme Court judgment in
the case of Union of India Vs. Tarsem Singh,
reported in (2008) 8 SCC 648 on the issue of
limitation relating to payment on 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 aforesaid, 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
writ petitioner at the rate of 8% percent per
annum        on   the   first   arrear    pension    from
01.02.2017 to 18.04.2020 and revised arrear
pension and revised gratuity calculated on and
from   1st    February,   2020    till   actual   date   of
payment.       Such payment is to be made within
eight weeks from the date of communication of the
certified copy of this order to be concerned
authorities.
         Since no affidavits have been invited, the
allegations contained in the writ petition are
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deemed    not   to       have   been   admitted   by   the
respondents.

The writ petition is, accordingly, disposed. There will be no order as to costs.

Urgent certified copy of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance of the requisite formalities.

(Moushumi Bhattacharya, J.)