Bitul Kumar Halder vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5552 Cal

17.08.2022
 Sl. No.712
   pk

                                 W.P.A. 12449 of 2022

                                     Bitul Kumar Halder
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Tamal Taru Panda
                                           ... for the petitioner

                            Mr. Atarul Hoque Molla
                                         ... for the State.


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

                     The petitioner was an Assistant Teacher of a
              School, who retired on 31.01.2017. The first pension
              payment order was issued on 29.12.2016. 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 21.12.2020 and the
              revised gratuity and revised arrear pension amount was
              disbursed on 03.01.2021 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
              the issue of limitation relating to payment or refixation of
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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.)