Durgawati Mahato vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5748 Cal

23.08.2022
 Sl. No.872
   pk

                                 W.P.A. 12706 of 2022

                                      Durgawati Mahato
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Uttam Kumar Roy
                                          ... for the petitioner

                            Mr. Jaydip Basu
                                                 ... for the State.


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

                     The husband of the petitioner was an Assistant
              Teacher of a High School, who retired from service on
              31.01.2011 and died on 18.03.2017. The petitioner had
              completed all his pension related formalities prior to his
              retirement. However, the concerned authorities delayed
              and released gratuity amount on 02.07.2012. The
              petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity
              for the interim period of delay in receipt of the gratuity
              amount and 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
gratuity amount and arrear pension amount calculated on
and from 01.02.2011 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.)