Sabitri Ghosh Paul vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4401 Cal

19.07.2022
   525
NS Ct.13
                                 W.P.A No. 11313 of 2022


                                 Sabitri Ghosh Paul
                                         Vs.
                           The State of West Bengal & Ors.



             Ms. Sabita Khutia (Bhunya)         ... for the petitioner.

             Mr. Bibekananda Tripathy      ... for the State.



                     Affidavit of service filed in Court today be kept

             with the record.

                     The petitioner was a teacher of a School, District

             - Barrackpore, who retired from service on 31.03.2018.

             The   first   pension   payment   order   was    issued    on

             17.09.2018. 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 09.03.2022 and the revised gratuity amount

             was disbursed on 10.03.2022 in terms of ROPA, 2019.

             The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of the

             principal gratuity and arrear pension amount and also

             revised arrear pension amount and revised gratuity

             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
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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

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

principal gratuity and arrear pension amount calculated

on and from 01.04.2018 till the date of payment and to

pay interest @ 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.
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        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 shall be no order as to costs.

Urgent certified photo copy of this order, if

applied for, be supplied to the parties expeditiously on

compliance of usual legal formalities.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)