Basudeb Bera v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

12.03.2021 (adeb) W.P.A. No. 5908 of 2021 Basudeb Bera Vs.

The State of West Bengal & ors.

Mr. Tamaltaru Panda ... For the petitioner Mrs. Debarati Sen (Bose) ....For the State Affidavit of service filed in court today is taken on record.

The material facts of the case are admitted and hence I have not called for affidavits.

The petitioner was an employee of the school in question and retired from service on 31.05.1999. The first Pension Payment Order was issued on 25.01.2002. 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 02.01.2003 and the revised arrear pension amount was disbursed on 08.10.2003 in terms of ROPA, 1998. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of the revised arrear pension 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. 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 refixation of pay or pension wherein the Apex Court had held that relief maybe granted in spite of delay as it does not affect the rights of the third party. In view thereof, 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 writ petitioner @ 8% per annum on the revised arrear pension amount calculated on and from 01.06.1999 till actual date of payment.

This writ petition is, thus, disposed of.

Since no affidavit is called for, the allegations made in the writ petition are deemed to have been denied. There will, however, be no 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.)