Ramnath Singh vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 4902 Cal

09.08.2023          IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
  DL-89           CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
   (PP)                  APPELLATE SIDE
                          WPA 18688 of 2023

                           Ramnath Singh
                                 Vs.
                    The State of West Bengal & Ors.

                  Mr. Srinjay Sengupta,
                  Mr. Saurav Roy,
                  Mr. Narattam Acharyya,
                  Mr. Ankush Ghosh
                                            ....for the petitioner.
                  Ms. Deblina Chattaraj,
                  Ms. Angana Dutta
                                                  .....for WBTCL.
                  Ms. Parna Roy Choudhury
                                                  ....for the State.


                  Affidavit of service filed in Court today is
             retained with the records.
                   The writ petitioner was a permanent employee
             of the West Bengal Transport     Corporation   Limited
             (in short 'the WBTCL') previously known as the
             Calcutta    Tramways Company (1978) Limited. The
             writ petitioner retired from his service on September
             30, 2018.
                   The writ petitioner prays for interest on delayed
             disbursement of retiral dues, from October 1, 2018
             (the date succeeding the date of retirement) till
             December 21, 2018 (the date on which the retiral
             benefits have actually been paid) on the sum of
             Rs.23,89,849/- being the total retiral dues.
                   The issue of payment of interest on delayed
             payment of retiral benefits has been considered by the
             Hon'ble Supreme Court in two judgments reported in
             2021 (11) SCC 543 (State of Andhra Pradesh & Anr.
             Vs. Dinavahi Lakshmi Kameswari) and also in 2022
             (4) SCC 627 (Dr. A. Selvaraj Vs. CBM College &
                      2




Ors.). In Selvaraj (supra) it was held that the delay in
payment of retiral benefits was due to no fault on the
part of the petitioner. It was an obligation on the part
of the employer to process the retiral benefits and pay
the same within one month of the date of the
petitioner's retirement. Since the payment was not
made within one month, the interest was held to date
back to the petitioner's date of retirement.
      Following the aforesaid judgements of the Apex
Court and also the judgement passed by Co-ordinate
Bench of this Hon'ble Court in WPO No.2279 of 2022
(Swapan Kumar Das vs. The State of West Bengal),
this Court holds that interest at the rate of 6 per cent
per annum should be paid by the respondent

company to the petitioner from October 1, 2018 (the date succeeding the date of retirement) to December 21, 2018 (the date on which the retiral benefits have actually been paid) for late disbursement of post retiral benefits within three months from date. In the event there is any default in payment of interest within the stipulated period, the rate of interest will stand increased to 10 per cent per annum being the rate payable at present under the Payment of Gratuities Act, 1972.

The petitioner is entitled to claim such interest. A beneficial reference may be made to an order/judgment passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench in F.M.A. 3942 of 2016 (Amarnath Tiwari & Ors. vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) This Court is of the view that the laws of limitation are not applicable in exercise of jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India relying on a judgment passed by the Apex Court reported in 2022 Live Law (SC) 785 (State of Rajasthan & Ors. Vs. O.P. Gupta). It has also been held in the said decision that the Court

cannot be oblivious to the difficulties of a retired employee in approaching the Court, which could include financial constraints.

Since affidavits have not been invited in the present writ petition, the allegations made in the writ petition are deemed not to have been admitted by the parties.

With the aforesaid directions, the writ petition, being WPA 18688 of 2023 is disposed of.

All parties are to act on a server copy of this order downloaded from the official website of this Hon'ble Court.

Urgent certified website copies of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.

(Lapita Banerji, J.)