Alpana Bhattacharyya vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4653 Cal

22.07.2022
 Sl. No.518
  gd/ssd

                                 W.P.A. 11662 of 2022

                                 Alpana Bhattacharyya
                                          -Vs-
                            The State of West Bengal & Ors.


                            Mr. Sudip Sarkar
                                           ... for the petitioner
                            Md. Abu Reja Jaglul Kabir
                                           ... for the State

                     Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept with
              the record.

                     The petitioner was an Teacher of a school, who
              retired on 31.01.2018. The first pension payment order
              was issued on 09.03.2018. 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 18.03.2021 and the revised gratuity
              amount was disbursed on 20.03.2021 in terms of ROPA,
              2019. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of
              the principal gratuity and 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
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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 01.02.2018 till the date of actual payment and to
pay interest @ 8% per annum on the revised arrear and
revised gratuity 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.)