Arun Kumar Maity vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 6165 Cal

31.08.2022
Court No.13
Item No.709
AP
                              WPA 13100 of 2022

                             Arun Kumar Maity
                                     Vs.
                      The State of West Bengal and Ors.

              Ms. Sudipa Banerjee
                                              ... For the Petitioner.

              Mr. Biswajit Dutta
                                                   ... For the State.


                      Affidavit of service file in Court today is
              taken on record.
                      The petitioner was a Head Master of a High
              School, who retired on 29.02.2016.          The first
              pension payment order was issued on 07.04.2016.
              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 07.03.2022 and the revised gratuity and
              revised arrear pension amount was disbursed on
              10.03.2022 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
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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.)