Ramani Mandi And ANR. v. The State Of West Bengal And ORS.

ss 04.09.2025 WPA 15821 of 2025 Ramani Mandi & Anr.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Ms. Sudipta Maiti ... ... for the petitioners Mr. Suman Singh ... ... for the State Affidavit of service filed in Court today is kept with the record.

The husband of the petitioner No.1 was a teacher of a Primary School, who died-in-harness on 07.08.2019. The petitioner No.1 had completed all pension-related formalities after the death of her husband. The pension payment order was issued on 30.08.2024. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released the gratuity amount on 31.10.2024. The petitioners herein seek 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 petitioners seek 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 petitioners that accordingly the petition should be allowed.

The petitioners rely 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 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 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 above and after hearing the learned Counsel for both 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 petitioners @ 8% per annum on the gratuity amount calculated from 08.08.2019 till the date of payment as per their shares. 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. Urgent certified website copy of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance with the requisite formalities.

(Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.)