Ashim Kumar Sarkar v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

19.07.2022 RP Ct.13 W.P.A No. 11316 of 2022 Ashim Kumar Sarkar Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Krishna Pada Santra ... for the petitioner.

The affidavit-of-service filed by the learned Advocate for the petitioner in Court today be kept with the record. None appears for the State respondent.

The learned Advocate for the petitioner submits that the petitioner was an assistant teacher of a School and retired from service on 31.08.2018. The first Pension Payment Order was issued in favour of the petitioner on 10.07.2018. Under the ROPA Rules, 2019 there was revision of the pensionary and gratuity amount payable to the petitioner. The revised pension payment order was issued on 29.12.2022 and the revised gratuity and revised arrear pension was released on 06.01.2022 in terms of ROPA 2019. The petitioner claims interest on delayed payment of the revised gratuity and 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 inWP 17557 (W) of 2017 (Narayan Chandra Saha vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) wherein a coordinate 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.

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 revised gratuity and revised arrear pension calculated on and from 14.02.2020 till the date of actual payment. Such payment is to be made with a period of eight weeks from thedate of communication of this order.

With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of.

There will be no order as to costs.

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.

Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)