Sukumar Pan vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4385 Cal

19.07.2022
   533
RP Ct.13
                                W.P.A No. 11329 of 2022


                                     Sukumar Pan
                                         Vs.
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.


                  Mr. Sourav Mitra
                  Ms. Sreyasree Choudhury
                                        ... for the petitioner.
                  Mr. K. Nabi
                                        ... for State




                  The affidavit-of-service filed by the learned Advocate

             for the petitioner in Court today be kept with the record.

                  The learned Advocate for the petitioner submits that

             the petitioner was an assistant teacher of a School and

             retired from service on 31.01.2018. The first Pension

             Payment Order was issued in favour of the petitioner on

             27.02.2018. 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 07.06.2021 and the revised gratuity and revised

             arrear pension was released on 11.06.2021 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
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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 inWP 17557 (W) of

2017 (Narayan Chandra Saha vs. State of West Bengal &

Ors.) wherein a coordinate 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 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 calculated on and from
14.02.2020 till the date of actual payment. Such payment
is to be made with a period of eight weeks from thedate of
communication of this order.
      With these observations, the writ petition is disposed

of.

      There will be no order as to costs.

      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.

Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)