Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Goutam Banerjee vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors on 11 October, 2023
11.10.2023
Court No.25
Item No.148
Sws.M
WPA 23377 of 2023
Goutam Banerjee
Vs.
The State of West Bengal and Ors.
Mr. Golam Mohammad
... For the Petitioner.
Ms. Debline Chattaraj
Ms. Angana Dutta
... For the respondent Corporation.
Ms. Nilanjana Adhya
... 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 April 30, 2020.
The writ petitioner prays for interest on delayed
disbursement of retiral dues, from May 1, 2020 (the date
succeeding the date of retirement) till September 09, 2020
(the date on which the retiral benefits have actually been paid)
on the sum of Rs.40,73,620.34/- 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 May 1, 2020 (the
date succeeding the date of retirement) till September 09,
2020 (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.
Ms. Chattaraj, learned counsel appearing on behalf of
the corporation submits that there is a mistake with regard to
the date of retirement of the petitioner in the prayer portion. It
is clarified that the date of retirement recorded in the above
were considered to be the date of retirement for the purpose of
calculation of the interest amount payable to the petitioner.
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 23377 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.)
