Calcutta High Court
M/S. Eastern Coalfields Ltd vs Kajoli Bouri And Ors on 25 June, 2014
Author: Samapti Chatterjee
Bench: Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay, Samapti Chatterjee
ORDER SHEET
GA No.1648 of 2014
APOT No.269 of 2014
WP No.4 of 2014
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
Civil Appellate Jurisdiction
ORIGINAL SIDE
M/S. EASTERN COALFIELDS LTD.
Versus
KAJOLI BOURI AND ORS.
BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE PRANAB KUMAR CHATTOPADHYAY
AND
The Hon'ble JUSTICE SAMAPTI CHATTERJEE
Date: 25th June, 2014
Appearance:
Mr. R. N. Majumder, Adv.
Ms. Sanchita Barman Roy, Adv.
Mr. Partha Ghosh, Adv.
This application has been filed in connection with the appeal
preferred from the judgment and order dated 7th January, 2014 whereby a
learned Judge of this Court disposed of the writ petition by directing the
Eastern Coalfileds Limited Authorities to pay the compensation due to the
respondents-writ petitioners with effect from the month following the death of
the husband of the respondent-writ petitioner no.1.
Pursuant to the aforesaid direction passed by the learned Single Judge, necessary payment has already been made by the appellant-coal company and the same has been accepted by the respondents-petitioners. 2
The learned Advocate representing the respondents-writ petitioners prays for granting interest for delayed payment of compensation amount.
In the present case, initially the respondents-writ petitioners claimed employment on compassionate ground and the appellant coal- company upon considering the scheme decided to make payment of compensation in lieu of employment. The learned Single Judge also allowed the appellant company to pay the compensation due to the respondents-writ petitioners under the National Coal Wage Agreement VI.
We do not find any error or infirmity in the decision of the learned Single Judge with regard to the direction for payment of compensation amount. The appellant-coal company undisputedly made the aforesaid payment after the expiry of the time limit fixed by the learned Single Judge. Since the latches and/or lapses on the part of the appellant-coal company for not making payment of compensation amount within the time limit fixed by the learned Single Judge were not intentional, we are of the opinion that in this case aforesaid latches and/or lapses on the part of the authorities of the appellant-coal company for not making payment of compensation amount within the time limit should be condoned. Therefore, we condone the aforesaid latches and/or lapses on the part of the appellant-coal company and hold that the said appellant-coal company is not required to make any payment of interest in terms of the order passed by the learned Single Judge. 3
The order passed by the learned Single Judge is, therefore, modified only to the aforesaid extent.
With the aforesaid modification of the impugned order under appeal, we dispose of both the application as well as the appeal upon treating the said appeal as on day's list.
There will, however, be no order as to costs.
(PRANAB KUMAR CHATTOPADHYAY, J.) (SAMAPTI CHATTERJEE, J.) AKGoswami