Sovana Rani Pal Samanta & ORS v. State Of West Bengal & ORS

26.03 W.P.A. 3221 of 2020 Sovana Rani Pal Samanta & Ors.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Ct.

No.

akb Mr. Tamal Taru Panda ...For the Petitioners Mr. Kapil Guha ...For the State Respondents 1.

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

2.

The husband of the petitioner No. 1 was an Assistant Teacher of a High School, who died-in-harness on 16.01.2017. The petitioner No. 1 had completed all pension related formalities after the death of her husband. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released his arrear pension amount on 12.7.2018. The petitioners herein seek interest to be paid on the arrear pension amount for the interim period of delay in receipt of the arrear pension amount.

3.

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. 4.

The petitioner relies upon an order in W.P.

17557 (W) of 2017 (Narayan Chandra Saha vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) wherein a co-ordinate 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.

5.

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 pension amount calculated from 17.01.02.2017 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.

6.

With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of.

7.

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.

8.

There will be no order as to costs.

9.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis. ( Shekhar B. Saraf, J.)