Mst. Rousanara Khanam vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5476 Cal

16.08.2022
 Sl. No.701
   pk


                                 W.P.A. 12358 of 2022

                                  Mst. Rousanara Khanam
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Tamal Taru Panda
                                           ... for the petitioner

                            Mr. Biswanath Samanta
                                          ... for the State.


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

                     The petitioner's husband was an Assistant Teacher
              of a High School, who retired on 28.02.2008 and died on
              04.03.2009. The first pension payment order was issued
              on 27.05.2008. Under the ROPA Rules, 2009 there was
              revision of the pensionary and gratuity amount payable to
              the petitioner. The revised pension payment order was
              issued on 16.04.2012 and the revised arrear pension
              amount was disbursed on 13.07.2012 in terms of ROPA,
              2009. 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
              India vs. Tarsem Singh, reported in (2008) 8 SCC 648 on
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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 June 1, 2009 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.)