Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Sailendranath Barick vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 30 March, 2023
30.03.2023 IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
DL-103 CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
(PP) APPELLATE SIDE
WPA 6917 of 2023
Sailendranath Barick
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. Sristi Paul
.....for WBTCL.
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 January 31,
2018.
The writ petitioner prays for interest on
delayed disbursement of retiral dues, from February
1, 2018 (the date succeeding the date of retirement)
till March 28, 2018 (the date on which the retiral
benefits have actually been paid) on the sum of
Rs.26,94,186/- being the total retiral dues.
The issue of payment of interest on delayed
payment of retiral benefits has been considered by the
2
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 &
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 February1, 2018 (date
succeeding the date of retirement) to March 28, 2018
for late disbursement of post retiral benefits within six
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.
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 6917 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.)
