Ram Krishna Das vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 6131 Cal

30.08.2022
 Sl. No.1221
   pk
                                  W.P.A. 13047 of 2022

                                       Ram Krishna Das
                                              -Vs-
                                The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                             Ms. Sudipa Banerjee
                                           ... for the petitioner

                             Mr. Tapas Kumar Kundu
                                             ... for the State.


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

                      The petitioner was a Head Master of a High School,
               who retired on 28.02.2018. The first pension payment
               order was issued on 11.06.2018. 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 08.02.2021 and the revised
               gratuity and revised arrear pension amount was disbursed
               on 18.02.2021 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 the Apex Court had held that relief
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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.)