Namita Kuila (Ghosh) vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5421 Cal

12.08.2022
 Sl. No.710
   pk


                                  W.P.A. 7620 of 2022

                                    Namita Kuila (Ghosh)
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mrs. Sabita Khutia(Bhunya)
                                           ... for the petitioner

                            Mr. P. K. Bhattacharyay
                                               ... for the State


                     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 30.06.2016. The first
              pension payment order was issued on 25.05.2016. 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
              20.03.2022 and the revised gratuity and revised arrear
              pension amount was disbursed on 24.03.2022 in terms of
              ROPA, 2019. The petitioner claims interest on delayed
              payment of the revised gratuity and revised 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 of West
              Bengal & Ors.) wherein a co-ordinate Bench had relied
              upon the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Union of
                                2




India vs. Tarsem 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 revised arrear pension amount
calculated on and from 14.02.2020 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.

       With these observations, the writ petition is
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.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)