Chhaya Rani Roy v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

12.2.2021 373,ct.15 sk W.P.A.4222 of 2021 Chhaya Rani Roy Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Tamaltaru Panda ... for the Petitioner.

Mr. Debabrata Mondal(2) ...for the State.

Affidavit of service filed in Court today is kept with the record.

The father of the petitioner was an employee of the School in question and retired from service on 31.04.1997 and died on 20.11.2011. The first pension payment order was issued on 10.05.2000 under the ROPA Rules, 1998 there was revision of the pensionary and gratuity amount payable to the petitioner. The revised pension payment order was issued on 07.12.2018 and the revised arrear pension amount was disbursed on 20.12.2018 in terms of ROPA, 1998. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of the revised arrear pension and revised 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.No. 17557(W) of 2017(Narayan Chandra Saha Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) wherein a co-ordinate Bench of this court had relied upon a 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 or 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 aforesaid, 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 revised arrear pension and revised gratuity amount calculated from 21.11.2011 till the date of actual of payment.

Such payment is to be made within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of this order.

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

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance with the requisite formalities.

(Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J. )