Kartic Chandra Das v. State Of West Bengal And ORS..

10.08.2022 Court No.13 Item No.658 AP WPA 12267 of 2022 Kartic Chandra Das Vs.

The State of West Bengal and Ors.

Mr. Subhrangsu Panda Ms. Ina Bhattacharyya ... For the Petitioner.

Affidavit of service file in Court today is taken on record.

The petitioner was a teacher of a school, who retired on 28.02.2005. He had completed all his pension related formalities prior to his retirement. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released his gratuity amount on 22.09.2021 in terms of ROPA 1998. The petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity for the interim period of delay in respect of the gratuity amount in terms of ROPA 1998.

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. 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 gratuity amount calculated on and from 01.03.2005 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 photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis. (Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)