Sandhya Ghosh Senapati vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4402 Cal

19.07.2022
   522
NS Ct.13
                              W.P.A No. 11308 of 2022


                            Sandhya Ghosh Senapati
                                        Vs.
                        The State of West Bengal & Ors.



             Ms. Sabita Khutia            ... for the petitioner.




                     Affidavit of service filed in Court today be kept

             with the record. None appears for the respondents.

The petitioner was a Teacher of a High School,

who retired from service on 30.11.2017. The first pension

payment order was issued on 26.1.2018. 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 03.03.2021 and the

revised gratuity amount was disbursed on 06.03.2021 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

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 01.12.2017 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.

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.)