Srikrishna Das vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 6991 Cal

11.10.2023             IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
  DL-168             CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
   (SD)                       APPELLATE SIDE
                               WPA 23623 of 2023

                                Srikrishna Das
                                       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.


                     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 February 28,
             2014. A sum of Rs.2,15,724/- being provident fund
             dues were disbursed to the petitioner belatedly on May
             21, 2014.       Further a sum of Rs.8,44,856/- being
             gratuity, leave salary and were disbursed to the
             petitioner also belatedly on September 26, 2014. The
             writ    petitioner   prays     for    interest   on   delayed
             disbursement of such retiral dues as well as interest on
             delayed payment of gratuity amount.
                    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
                         2




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      on   the    Provident   Fund   amount
Rs.2,15,724/- should be paid by the respondent

company to the petitioner from March 1, 2014 (the date succeeding the date of retirement) to May 21, 2014 (the date on which the retiral benefits have actually been paid) and on the gratuity, leave salary of Rs. 8,44,856/- should be paid by the respondent company to the petitioner from March 1, 2014 (the date succeeding the date of retirement) to September 26, 2014 (the date on which the gratuity amount 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 23623 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.)