Nila Pal And ANR. v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

jks 04.09.2025 WPA 7117 of 2025 Nila Pal & Anr.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Krishnapada Santra ... ... for the petitioner Affidavit of service filed in Court today is kept with the record.

The husband/father of the petitioners was an Assistant Teacher of a Primary School. The husband/father of the petitioners retired from service on 29.02.2000 and died on 22.01.2011. The husband/father of the petitioners had completed all his pension related formalities prior to his retirement. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released the gratuity amount on 07.01.2017. 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 of the parties has 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 aforesaid, 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 gratuity amount calculated from 01.03.2000 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 disposed of, 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. The parties shall act in terms of the copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. (Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.)