Arup Chakraborty vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 6979 Cal

11.10.2023
Court No.25
Item No.151
   Sws.M


                                   WPA 23382 of 2023

                                    Arup Chakraborty
                                           Vs.
                            The State of West Bengal and Ors.


              Mr. Golam Mohammad
                                                           ... For the Petitioner.


              Ms. Deblina Chattaraj
              Ms. Angana Dutta
                                            ... For the respondent Corporation.

Mr. Deb Narayan Banerjee ... For the State- respondents

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 December 31, 2021.

The writ petitioner prays for interest on delayed

disbursement of retiral dues, from January 1, 2022 (the date

succeeding the date of retirement) till March 7, 2022 (the date

on which the retiral benefits have actually been paid) on the

sum of Rs.43,81,539/- 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 & 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 January 1, 2022

(the date succeeding the date of retirement) till March 7, 2022

(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.

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 23382 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.)