Shri Harihar Sarkar vs Calcutta State Transport ...
2023 Latest Caselaw 6582 Cal

25   27.09.2023
     Ct.25
                                   W.P.A. 22582 of 2023
SD

                                   Shri Harihar Sarkar
                                          -vs-
                       Calcutta State Transport Corporation & Ors.

                  Mr. Dilip Kumar Chatterjee,
                  Mr. Prabir Kumar Chatterjee,
                  Mr. Durga Bhusan Mukkhopadhyay
                                                        ....for the petitioner.
                  Mr. N. C. Bihani,
                  Mr. Soumyojit Ghosh
                                                            ....for the C.S.T.C..


                           Affidavit of service filed in Court today is

                  retained with the records.

                           The    writ   petitioner   was    a   permanent

                  employee of Calcutta State Transport Corporation

                  (CSTC). The petitioner retired from his service on

                  September 30, 2022. A sum of Rs.12,62,000/-

                  being 40% of the contributory provident fund dues

                  were disbursed to the petitioner on October 15,

                  2022, within one month from the date of retirement.

                  Remaining 60% of the CPF aggregating a sum of

                  Rs.18,92,556/- was disbursed to the petitioner

                  belatedly on August 3, 2023. The writ petitioner

                  prays for interest on delayed disbursement of such

                  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
                           2




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 October 1, 2022 (the date succeeding the date

of retirement) to August 3, 2023 (the date on which

the retiral benefits have actually been paid) for late

disbursement of post retiral benefits within three

months from date.

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 22582 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.)