Sandhya Das vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5422 Cal

12.08.2022
 Sl. No.693
   pk

                                  W.P.A. 3596 of 2021

                                        Sandhya Das
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Tamal Taru Panda
                                           ... for the petitioner

                            Mr. Gautam Basu
                                                    ... for the State.

                     Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept with
              the record.

                     The husband of the petitioner was an Assistant
              Teacher of a High School, who retired on 31.06.2006 and
              died on 29.08.2015. He had completed all his pension
              related formalities prior to his retirement. However, the
              concerned authorities delayed and released his gratuity
              amount on 06.06.2012. The petitioner herein seeks
              interest to be paid on the gratuity and arrear pension for
              the interim period of delay in receipt of the gratuity amount
              and 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
              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
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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
gratuity and arrear pension amount calculated on and from
01.07.2006 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.)