Mrityunjoy Lahiri vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 8312 Cal

14.12.2022
Court No.21
Item No.106
    SD
                                 WPA 27287 of 2022

                                 Mrityunjoy Lahiri
                                        Vs.
                         The State of West Bengal and Ors.

              Mr. Srinjay Sengupta
              Mr. Saurav Roy
              Mr. Narattam Acharyya
              Mr. Ankush Ghosh
                                                    ... For the Petitioner.

              Md. Hasanuz Zaman
                                                          ... For the State.

              Mr. Niladri Bhattacharjee
              Ms. Deblina Chattaraj
              Ms. Angana Dutta
                                           ... For the respondent WBTCL.

The writ petitioner was a permanent employee of

the West Bengal Transport Corporation Limited (in short

'the WBTCL') previously known as the Calcutta

Tramways Company (1978) Limited. The writ petitioner

retired from his service on December 31, 2021.

The writ petitioner prays for interest on delayed

disbursement of retiral dues, from January 1, 2022 (the

date succeeding the date of retirement) till March 7, 2022

(the date on which the retiral benefits have actually been

paid) on the sum of Rs.47,31,882/- being the total retiral

dues.

The issue of payment of interest on delayed

payment of retiral benefits has been considered by the

Hon'ble Supreme Court in two judgments reported in 2021

(11) SCC 543 (State of Andhra Pradesh & Anr. Vs.

Dinavahi Lakshmi Kameswari) and also in 2022 (4) SCC

627 (Dr. A. Selvaraj Vs. CBM College & Ors.). in Selvaraj

(supra) it was held that the delay in payment of retiral

benefits was due to no fault on the part of the petitioner. It

was an obligation on the part of the employer to process

the retiral benefits and pay the same within one month of

the date of the petitioner's retirement. Since the payment

was not made within one month, the interest was held to

date back to the petitioner's date of retirement.

Following the aforesaid judgements of the Apex

Court and also the judgement passed by Co-ordinate

Bench of this Hon'ble Court in WPO No.2279 of 2022

(Swapan Kumar Das vs. The State of West Bengal), this

Court holds that interest at the rate of 6 per cent per

annum should be paid by the respondent company to the

petitioner from January 1, 2022 (the date succeeding the

date of retirement) to March 7, 2022 (the date on which the

retiral benefits have actually been paid) for late

disbursement of post retiral benefits within six months

from date. In the event there is any default in payment of

interest within the stipulated period, the rate of interest

will stand increased to 10 per cent per annum being the

rate payable at present under the Payment of Gratuities

Act, 1972.

Since affidavits have not been invited in the present

writ petition, the allegations made in the writ petition are

deemed not to have been admitted by the parties.

With the aforesaid directions, the writ petition,

being WPA 27287 of 2022 is disposed of.

All parties are to act on a server copy of this order

downloaded from the official website of this Hon'ble Court.

Urgent certified website copies of this order, if

applied for, be made available to the parties subject to

compliance with all requisite formalities.

(Lapita Banerji, J.)