Arun Ghosh vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 3401 Cal

     99
14.06.2022

Ct. No.23 pg.

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION APPELLATE SIDE

WPA 9271 of 2022

Arun Ghosh Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Jamiruddin Khan Ms. Jayanti Sengupta ... For the petitioner

Ms. Kum Kum Das ... For the State

Mr. Niladri Bhattacharjee Ms. Deblina Chattaraj Mr. Rohan Chatterjee ... For the WBTC

Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken on

record.

The petitioner is a retired employee of Calcutta

Tramways Company (1978) Ltd. (in short "CTC") now

known as West Bengal Transport Corporation Limited (in

short "WBTC") who retired from services on 31st August,

2013. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of

benefits under the Revision of Pay and Allowance Rules,

1998 (in short "ROPA 1998") which is applicable to him.

The cause to claim first arose in 2008 when the delay

occurred. Even if it is accepted that till his retirement the

petitioner had a continuing cause but the same

crystallised on his retirement when the petitioner was not

paid the interest.

The issue sought to be raised in the instant writ

petition is squarely covered by a recent judgment and

order of this Court dated 14th September, 2021 passed in

WPA 7490 of 2021 (Vivekananda Halder & Ors. v. The

State of West Bengal & Ors.) but the petitioner has

approached this Court only on 19th May, 2022 to claim

interest on delayed payment. The long delay on the part of

the petitioner disentitles him to the benefit. There is also

no pleading or evidence to show that the petitioner's cause

is a continuing one.

The writ petition is, therefor, required to be

dismissed in view of the ratio laid down in 2008 (8) SCC

648 (Union of India And Others vs. Tarsem Singh) and

2016 (13) SCC 797 (Asger Ibrahim Amin vs. Life Insurance

Corporation of India) which, according to me, also applies

to the instant case as there is long delay and laches on the

part of the petitioner in approaching the Court.

The writ petition is dismissed. There shall be no

order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if

applied for, be given to the parties, upon compliance of

necessary formalities.

(Arindam Mukherjee, J.)