Benoy Pada Barua vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 1073 Cal

     46
08.03.2022

Ct. No.23 pg.

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION APPELLATE SIDE

WPA 2862 of 2022

Benoy Pada Barua Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Srinjay Sengupta Mr. Saurav Roy Mr. Narattam Acharyya Mr. Ankush Ghosh ... For the petitioner

Mr. Niladri Bhattacharjee Ms. Deblina Chattaraj ... 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 30th November,

2009. 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 16th February, 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. Tersem 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.)