Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Jagannath Mallick vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 14 June, 2022
Author: Rajasekhar Mantha
Bench: Rajasekhar Mantha
14.06.2022
Sl. No.181
ap
W.P.A. 14917 of 2021
Jagannath Mallick
-Vs-
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Ms. Arpita Saha.
... ... for the petitioner
Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept with
the record.
The petitioner was an 'Assistant Teacher' of a High
School, who retired on 31.12.2016. The first pension
payment order was issued on 02.01.2017. 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 05.05.2021 and the
gratuity and revised arrear pension was disbursed on
22.06.2021 in terms of ROPA, 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
2
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.)