Smt. Jayanti Pal vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 3654 Cal

27.06.2022
 Sl. No.341
   ap

                         W.P.A. 4627 of 2022

                                       Smt. Jayanti Pal
                                             -Vs-
                               The State of West Bengal & Ors.



                     Ms. Setu Das Roy.
                                         ... ... for the petitioner
                     Mr. Swapan Banerjee,
                     Mr. Sougata Mitra.
                                        ...for the State.



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

                     The petitioner's husband Late Apurbananda Pal
              was an 'Assistant Teacher' of a High School, who retired
              on 31.01.2011. The first pension payment order was
              issued on 16.04.2012. The gratuity and arrear pension
              amount was disbursed on 02.07.2012 in terms of ROPA,
              2009. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of
              the 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
delayed period of payment of gratuity amount calculated
on and from 16.04.2012 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.)