Snigdha Maiti (Santra) vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 4774 Cal

26.07.2022
 Sl. No.500
     jb.


                                 W.P.A. 11874 of 2022

                                   Snigdha Maiti (Santra)
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                            Ms. Sreyasree Choudhury
                                           ... for the petitioner

                            Ms. Tapati Samanta
                                          ... for the State

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

                     The petitioner was a Head Master of a High School,
              who retired on 31.03.2016. The first pension payment
              order was issued on 18.02.2016. 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 15.11.2021 and the revised
              arrear pension amount was disbursed on 25.11.2021 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
              pay or pension wherein the Apex Court had held that relief
                                2




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 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, on priority basis.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)