Dipti Bhattacharjee v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

05.03.2021.

W.P.A. 4592 of 2021 ab Ct. 15 Dipti Bhattacharjee Vs The State West Bengal & Ors. Ms. Sudipa Biswas ... For the Petitioner.

Mr. Syed Nasirul Hossain ... For the State.

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

The petitioner's husband was an Head Teacher of a Primary School, Kolkata who died-in-harness on 06.04.1988. He had completed all pension-related formalities prior to his retirement.

However, the concerned authorities delayed and released his arrear amount on 17.06.1997. The petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the arrear for the interim period of delay in receipt of the arrear 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 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 arrear amount calculated from 07.04.1988 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. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of without however, any order as to costs.

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

(Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.)