Tapas Sinha Roy vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5892 Cal

25.08.2022
Court No.13
Item No.663
AP
                              WPA 12791 of 2022

                              Tapas Sinha Roy
                                     Vs.
                      The State of West Bengal and Ors.

              Mr. Kalyan Kumar Panda
                                                ... For the Petitioner.

              Mr. Sk. Afrojul Haque
                                                    ... For the State.


                     Affidavit of service file in Court today is taken
              on record.
                     The petitioner was a headmaster of a High
              School, who retired on 30.09.2019.            The first
              pension payment order was issued on 05.11.2019.
              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 06.08.2021 and the revised gratuity and
              revised arrear pension amount was disbursed on
              01.09.2021 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 pay or pension wherein
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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.)