Syam Sundar Dalui vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4306 Cal

18.07.2022
 Sl. No.542
   TN

                                W.P.A. 11167 of 2022

                                    Syam Sundar Dalui
                                            -Vs-
                              The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Krishna Pada Santra
                                           ... for the petitioner



                     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 31.01.2017.            The first
              pension payment order was issued on 03.01.2017.
              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 22.09.2021 and the gratuity and revised
              arrear pension amount was disbursed on 01.10.2021 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
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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 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.)