Malati Bala Pal v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

12.2.2021 383,ct.15 sk W.P.A.4241 of 2021 Malati Bala Pal Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Manaranjan Sahu ...for the petitioner.

Mr. Tapas Kumar Kundu ...for the State.

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

The petitioner's husband was appointed as an Assistant Teacher of a Primary School who retired from service on 30.11.1995 and died on 07.06.2005. The petitioner's husband had completed all related formalities prior to his retirement. The pension payment order was issued on 10.07.2001. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released gratuity and arrear pension on 22.09.2001. The petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity amount for the interim period of delay in receipt 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.No. 17557(W) of 2017( Narayan Chandra Saha Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) wherein a co-ordinate 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 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 above and after hearing the learned Counsel for the petitioner, 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 gratuity and arrear pension amount calculated from 1.12.1995 till the date 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 being W.P.A. 4241 of 2021 disposed of without, 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.

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. )