Sukumar Roy vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5983 Cal

26.08.2022
Court No.13
Item No.521
AP


                               WPA 12867 of 2022

                                 Sukumar Roy
                                      Vs.
                       The State of West Bengal and Ors.

              Mr. Uttam Kumar Roy
                                                 ... For the Petitioner.

              Mr. Nara Narayan Ganguly
                                                        ... For the State.


                     Affidavit of service file in Court today is taken
              on record.
                     The petitioner was a Group D staff of a school,
              who retired on 31.05.2018.              The first pension
              payment order was issued on 12.11.2018. 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 20.08.2021 and the revised gratuity and
              revised arrear pension amount was disbursed on
              07.10.2021 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
                       2




(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.
       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.)