Sandhya Rani Sahoo v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

Dd Ct.

12.02.2021 WPA 3758 of 2021 Sandhya Rani Sahoo Vs The State West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Goutam Kumar Maity ... for the Petitioner Mr. Kshetra Prasad Mukhopadhyay ... For the State The husband of the petitioner was an approved Primary Teacher of a High School, who retired from service on 31.05.2009. The husband of the petitioner had completed all his pension-related formalities prior to his retirement. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released his gratuity amount and arrear pension on 18.02.2010. The petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity amount for the interim period of delay in receipt of the gratuity amount and arrear pension. 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 judgement in the case of Union of India Vs. Tarsem Singh, reported in (2008) 8 S.C.C. 648 on the issue of limitation relating to payment on re-fixation 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 and arrear pension calculated from 01.06.2009 till the date of actual payment.

be made within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of this order.

This writ petition is disposed of, however, no order as to costs.

Since no affidavit is called for, the allegations made in the writ petition are deemed to have been denied by the respondents.

Urgent photostat certified copy, if applied for, be given to the parties on urgent basis.

(Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.)