Sarapan Bibi vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5648 Cal

18.08.2022
  Sl. No.663
    ap

                                  W.P.A. 12463 of 2022

                                         Sarapan Bibi
                                              -Vs-
                                The State of West Bengal & Ors.

                      Mr. Tamal Taru Panda.
                                        ... ... for the petitioner

                      Mr. Mihir Kundu
                                              ....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 31.05.2009 and
               died on 02.11.2019. The first pension payment order was
               issued on 26.08.2009. 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 12.04.2012 and the revised arrear
               pension was disbursed on 19.07.2012 in terms of ROPA,
               209. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of
               the 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 arrear pension calculated on and from 01.06.2009
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.)