Smt. Kanika Nandi vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5700 Cal

22.08.2022
Court No.13
Item No.651
AP


                              WPA 12541 of 2022

                             Smt. Kanika Nandi
                                     Vs.
                      The State of West Bengal and Ors.


              Mr. Chandan Dutta
                                               ... For the Petitioner.

              Mr. Subrata Das Gupta
                                                      ... For the State.


                      Affidavit of service file in Court today is
              taken on record.
                      The husband of the petitioner was a teacher
              of a school, who retired on 30.08.2013.              The
              pension payment order was issued on 10.12.2013.
              The gratuity amount released on 27.12.2013.
              Thereafter husband of the petitioner died on
              18.04.2021. The petitioner claims interest on
              delayed payment of the gratuity.
                       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 may be granted in spite of delay as it does not
              affect the rights of the third party.
                      2




         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 amount
calculated from date of retirement to 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.)