Nirmal Kumar Mandal vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4533 Cal

20.07.2022
 Sl. No. 437
   ap

                                   W.P.A. 11166 of 2022

                                     Nirmal Kumar Mandal
                                              -Vs-
                                The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                      Mr. Sandip Ghosh.
                                            ... ... for the petitioner
                      Mrs. Karabi Roy.
                                              ...for the State.

                      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 31.08.2017. The first pension
               payment order was issued on 01.08.2017. 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 29.07.2021 and the
               gratuity amount was disbursed on 12.08.2021 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
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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 arrear pension 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.)