Goutam Dey vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 2732 Cal/2

OD-37

                          ORDER SHEET
                 IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION
                          ORIGINAL SIDE


                            WPO/1490/2023

                          GOUTAM DEY
                              VS
               THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS


  BEFORE:
  The Hon'ble JUSTICE LAPITA BANERJI
  Date: 29th September, 2023.

                                                                  Appearance:
                                                      Mr. Debdutta Basu, Adv.
                                                             For the Petitioner

                                             Mr. Biswabrata Basu Mallick, Adv.
                                                   Ms. P. Roy Chowdhury, Adv.
                                                                 For the State




      The Court: Affidavit of service filed in Court today be retained with

the records.

      In this writ petition, the petitioner claims for disbursement of

interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum on the retiral benefits

aggregating to Rs. 42,15,896/- (Rupees Forty Two Lakhs Fifteen

Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety Six Only) from April 1, 2023 (date

succeeding the date of retirement) till June 5, 2023 (the date on which is

retiral benefits have actually been paid). The petitioner worked as
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permanent employee with Calcutta Tramways Co. (1978) Ltd., now

known as West Bengal Transport Corporation Limited (WBTCL).

        The writ petitioner retired from service with effect from March 31,

2023.

        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 date

succeeding the date of the petitioner's retirement.

        Following the aforesaid judgements of the Apex Court and also the

judgment 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, 2023 to

June 5, 2023 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 WPO

No.1490 of 2023 is disposed of.

All parties are to act on a server copy of 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.)

A Dey/mg