Subhas Chandra Mondal vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4743 Cal

25.07.2022
rc/ct.no.13
Item No.428
                             WPA No. 11723 of 2022
                            Subhas Chandra Mondal
                                      Versus
                         The State of West Bengal & Ors.


                    Mr. Goutam Kr. Maity            ...for the petitioner

                    Mr. Ejaz Hossain                ...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 31.05.2018. The first pension

              payment order was issued on 06.03.2019. Under ROPA

              Rules, 2019 there was revision of the pensionary and

              gratuity amount payable to the petitioner. The revised

              pension payment order was issued on 09.02.2021 and

              the revised gratuity and revised arrear pension amount

              was disbursed on 25.02.2021 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 WP No. 17557(W) of 2017 (Narayan

              Chandra Saha vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) wherein
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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

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 will be no order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if

applied for, be given to the parties.

(Rajasekhar Mantha,J)