Binod Kumar Singh vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 2137 Cal

30.03.2023             IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
   DL-99             CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
   (PP)                     APPELLATE SIDE
                           WPA 6894 of 2023

                          Binod Kumar Singh
                                   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.
                    Mr. Gautam Basu
                                                 .....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 March 31,

             2020.

                      The writ petitioner prays for interest on

             delayed disbursement of retiral dues, from April 1,

             2020 (the date succeeding the date of retirement) till

             August 3, 2020 (the date on which the retiral benefits

             have     actually   been     paid)   on   the   sum     of

             Rs.40,84,505/- being the total retiral dues.
                      2




       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 &

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 April 1, 2020 (date

succeeding the date of retirement) to August 3, 2020

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.

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 6894 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.)