Jogesh Chandra De v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

186 26.03.2021 Sc WPA 2666 OF 2021 (Through Video Conference) -------- Jogesh Chandra De Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Biswajit Mal ... for the Petitioner Ms. Sipra Majumdar Mr. Milan Kumar Maity.

... for the State Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept with the record.

The petitioner was a Head Teach of a High School who retired on 31.01.2011. The pension payment order was issued on 23.08.2011. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released the gratuity amount on 30.12.2011 The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of the gratuity amount. There is a considerable delay in filing of the writ petition, which the petitioner seeks to justify by stating that there is no statutory period of limitation and neither parties have suffered due to this delay. It is the submission of the petitioner that accordingly the petition should be allowed. The petitioner relies upon an order in W.P. 17557 (W) of 2017 (Narayan Chandra Saha vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) wherein a coordinate Bench had relied upon the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Union of India vs. Tarsem Singh, reported in (2008) 8 SCC 648 on the issue of limitation relating to payment or refixation of pay or pension wherein the Apex Court had held that relief may be granted in spite of delay as it does not affect the rights of the third party.

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 to the petitioner @ 8% per annum on the gratuity amount calculated on and from 01.03.2011 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 these 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. (Shekhar B. Saraf, J.)