Suniti Kumar Ghosh vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 6121 Cal

30.08.2022
  Sl. No.1204
    ap

                                   W.P.A. 13023 of 2022

                                      Suniti Kumar Ghosh
                                               -Vs-
                                 The State of West Bengal & Ors.

                       Ms. Sudipta Maiti
                                             ... ... for the petitioner
                       Mr. Bipin Ghosh.
                                             ...for the State.


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

                       The petitioner was an 'Assistant Teacher' of a High
                School, who retired on 30.11.2017. The first pension
                payment order was issued in favour of the petitioner on
                01.12.2017. 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 16.04.2021 and the revised gratuity and revised
                arrear pension was disbursed on 22.04.2021 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
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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 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.)