Sunil Kumar Mandal vs State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 6098 Cal

30.08.2022
Item No. 1240
Court No.13.
AGM/CHC

                                 WPA 13075 OF 2022


                                 Sunil Kumar Mandal
                                          Vs.
                              State of West Bengal & Ors.

                      Ms. Sudipa Banerjee,
                                       ...for the petitioner.

                      Ms. Aishwarya Jayshree,         ... for the State.


                      The affidavit-of-service filed by the learned

                Advocate for the petitioner in Court today be kept with

                the record.

                      The petitioner was an Assistant Teacher of a

                High School, who retired from service on 31.08.2017.

                The first pension payment order was issued on

                22.08.2017. 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 03.06.2021 and the gratuity and

                revised arrear pension was disbursed on 10.06.2021

                in terms of ROPA 2019. The petitioner claims interest

                on delayed payment of the revised gratuity and revised

                arrear pension amount.

                      This 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
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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.

         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 calculated on and the 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.
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      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.)