Devika Basnet v. The State Of West Bengal And ORS

22.02 Ct. No. 2 Calcutta High Court In the Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri Appellate Jurisdiction W.P.A. 434 of 2021 Devika Basnet -VersusThe State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Deborshi Dhar ...For the Petitioner Mr. Subir Kumar Saja Ms. Bedashruti Bose ...For the State Respondents 1.

Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept akb with the record.

2.

The husband of the petitioner was a Librarian, who retired from service on 28.02.1994 and died on 27.8.2014. The husband of the petitioner had completed all pension related formalities prior to his retirement. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released gratuity amount on 27.5.2013. The petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity amount for the interim period of delay in receipt of the gratuity amount. 3.

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.

4.

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.

5.

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 from 01.4.1994 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.

6.

With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of.

7.

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. 8.

There will be no order as to costs.

9.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis. ( Shekhar B. Saraf, J.)