Kamala Rai v. The State Of West Bengal And ORS

Circuit Bench of Calcutta High Court at Jalpaiguri 23.04.

ab W.P.A. 914 of 2021 Kamala Rai

Versus

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Ms. Sabita Khutia (Bhunya) .....for the petitioner.

Mr. Hirak Barman Mr. Momenur Rahman ...For the State.

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

The petitioner was Teacher of a Primary School, Darjeeling who retired from service on 31.03.2019. The petitioner had completed all her pension-related formalities prior to her retirement. However, the concerned authorities delayed and released her gratuity and arrear pension amount on 30.03.2020. The petitioner herein seeks interest to be paid on the gratuity and arrear pension for the interim period of delay in receipt of the gratuity and 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 of the parties has 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. 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 judgement in the case of Union of India Vs. Tarsem Singh, reported in (2008) 8 S.C.C. 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.

Counsel for the petitioner, 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 and arrear pension calculated from 01.04.2019 till the date of payment. 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.)