Amar Kumar Das vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5841 Cal

24.08.2022
Court No.13
Item No.660
AP
                                WPA 12751 of 2022

                                Amar Kumar Das
                                       Vs.
                        The State of West Bengal and Ors.


              Ms. Arpita Saha
                                                   ... For the Petitioner.

              Mr. Somnath Naskar
                                                          ... For the State.


                     Affidavit of service file in Court today is taken
              on record.
                     The petitioner was a clerk of a school, who
              retired on 31.10.2017.       The first pension payment
              order was issued on 12.10.2017.            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 26.12.2020 and
              the revised gratuity and revised arrear pension amount
              was disbursed on 14.01.2021 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
                        2




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.)