Ratikanta Mahata v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

30.01.2024 Court No. 13 Item No. 101 AP

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side WPA 1850 of 2024 Ratikanta Mahata -versus The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Krishna Pada Santra ...For the Petitioner.

The affidavit of service filed by the learned Advocate for the petitioner in Court today be kept on record. The petitioner was a Secretary of a Gram Panchayat who retired on 31.08.2017. The first pension payment order was issued on 03.11.2017. Under the ROPA Rules, 2019 there was revision of the pensionary and gratuity amount payable to the petitioner. The revised pension payment order was issued on 24.02.2022 and the revised gratuity amount was disbursed on 24.02.2022 in terms of ROPA, 2019. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of the revised gratuity and revised arrear pension amount.

In view of the above and after hearing the learned Counsel for the parties, I direct the Director of Pension, Provident Fund and Group Insurance, Government of West Bengal as also the concerned Treasury Officer to pay interest @ 8% per annum on the revised gratuity and revised arrear pension amount calculated from the date of entitlement till the date of actual payment. Such payment is to be made within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of this order.

With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition is disposed of.

Since, no affidavit-in-opposition has been called for, the allegations made in the writ petition are deemed to have not been admitted by the respondents.

There will be no order as to costs.

Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis. (Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)