Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Amal Kumar Chaudhuri vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 20 July, 2022
Author: Rajasekhar Mantha
Bench: Rajasekhar Mantha
20.07.2022
Item No.455
Ct. No.13
CHC
W.P.A No. 11379 of 2022
Amal Kumar Chaudhuri
Vs.
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mrs. Sabita Khutia (Bhunya) ... for the petitioner.
Mr. Somnath Mukhopadhya ... for the State.
Affidavit of service filed in Court today be kept
with the record.
The petitioner was an 'Assistant Teacher' of a
High School, who retired from service on 31.12.2017. The
first pension payment order was issued on 12.04.2018.
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
26.05.2022 and the gratuity and revised arrear pension
was disbursed on 28.05.2022 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
2
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 shall be no order as to costs.
3Urgent certified photo copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties expeditiously on compliance of usual legal formalities.
(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)