Nilima Sarkar vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5480 Cal

16.08.2022
 Sl. No.697
   pk


                                 W.P.A. 12354 of 2022

                                        Nilima Sarkar
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Anirban Chakraborty
                                           ... for the petitioner

                            Ms. Tanima Sengupta
                                         ... for the State.


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

                     The petitioner was a Librarian of a School, who
              retired on 31.01.2017. The first pension payment order
              was issued on 31.01.2017. 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 26.08.2021 and the revised gratuity
              and revised arrear pension amount was disbursed on
              02.09.2021 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
              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 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.)