Ashutosh De v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

30.08.2022 Item No.20 JPG Ct. No.13 AGM/CHC

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

CIRCUIT BENCH AT JALPAIGURI W.P.A. 2415 of 2022 Ashutosh De Vs.

The State of West Bengal & ors.

Mr. Sakti Pada Jana, Mr. Subhajyoti Das ...for the petitioner Mr. Sailendu Sekhar Bayerd ...for the State Affidavit-of-service filed in Court today be kept with the record.

The petitioner was a Head Teacher of a Primary School, who retired on 31.03.2018. The first pension payment order was issued on 17.04.2018. 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 28.09.2020 and the gratuity and revised arrear pension was disbursed on 01.12.2020 in terms of Rope, 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 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 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 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.)