Malati Betal v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

22.07.2022 Sl. No.492 gd/ssd W.P.A. 10188 of 2022 Malati Betal -VsThe State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Kazi Sajjad Alam, Mr. Sayan Raul ... for the petitioner Affidavit of service filed in court today is taken on record.

The petitioner was an Assistant Teacher of a High School, who retired from service on May 31, 2019. The petitioner had completed all pension-related formalities. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released gratuity amount on July 27, 2021 and Provident Fund amount on March 3, 2021. The petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity amount as well as Provident Fund amount for the interim period of delay in receipt of the gratuity amount and P.F. 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 judgment in the case of Union of India vs.

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 amount as well as Provident Fund amount calculated on and from June 1, 2019 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. With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of.

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.

There will be no order as to costs.

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

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)