Md. Emdadul Hoque vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4308 Cal

18.07.2022
 Sl. No.537
   TN

                                W.P.A. 11155 of 2022

                                   Md. Emdadul Hoque
                                            -Vs-
                              The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Mr. Sandip Ghosh
                                          ... for the petitioner



                     The petitioner was an Assistant Teacher of a High
              School, who retired on 30.09.2019.          The first pension
              payment order was issued on 11.09.2019.            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
              06.01.2021 and the gratuity and revised arrear pension
              amount was disbursed on 24.01.2021 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
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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.)