Alpana Sarkar vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 3813 Cal

30.06.2022
Court No.13
Item no.407
AP
                                 WPA 15729 of 2021

                                    Alpana Sarkar
                                           Vs.
                            The State of West Bengal & Ors.

              Mr. Arun Khutia
                                                   ..For the petitioner.


                    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 30.06.2017.         The first

              pension payment order was issued on 21.06.2017.

              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 03.06.2021 and the revised gratuity amount

              was disbursed on 10.06.2021 in terms of ROPA, 2019.

              The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of

              the 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
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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 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.)