Manik Chandra Mandal And Another v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

19.03.2021 A.Deb Sl. 62 Ct. 15 WPA 6506 of 2021 Manik Chandra Mandal & Anr.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Ms. Sabita Khutia ( Bhunya) ........For the Petitioner Mr. Parijat Som ..for the State Affidavit-of-service filed in Court today is kept with the record.

The petitioner's wife/mother was a Teacher of a Primary School, who died-in-harness on 19.09.2017. She had completed all pension-related formalities after the death of deceased employee. The pension payment order was issued on 15.02.2019. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released his gratuity amount and arrear pension amount on 29.03.2019. The petitioner's herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity amount and arrear pension amount for the interim period of delay in receipt of the gratuity and 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.

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 gratuity and arrear pension amount calculated from 20.09.2017 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.

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

Since no affidavit-in-opposition 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 given to the parties on urgent basis. (Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.)