Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)Sudhir Kumar Pandey vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 1 October, 2013Author:Debasish Kar GuptaBench:Debasish Kar GuptaSn   1.10.2013                           W.P. No. 31201 (W) of 2013
87
                                             Sudhir Kumar Pandey
                                                     -vs-
                                   The State of West Bengal & Ors.


                  Mr. Uttam Kumar Roy             ... for the Petitioner.

                  Mr. J.P. Chatterjee              .. for the State


                              Let the affidavit-of-service filed today be kept
                 with the record.
                               This writ petition is filed by the writ petitioner
                 for a direction upon the respondent authorities to payinterest on gratuity for belated payment of the same.Having heard the learned Counsel appearing for the
                 respective parties and also considering the facts and circumstances of
                 the case, I find that the petitioner was an assistant teacher of Biltora
                 High School , District-Purulia and the petitioner retired from the above
                 service on September 30, 2006 on attaining the age of retirement on
                 superannuation.First payment was made to the petitioner on
                 October 20, 2006. First payment on the basis of revision
                 was made on June 30, 2011.A prayer is made on behalf of the petitioner
                                   not to press the claim of interest on gratuity on first
                                   payment for delayed payment of the same and to
                                   confine the prayer of the petitioner in respect of the
                                   benefit   of   West   Bengal   Non-Government    Aided
                                   Educational Institutions Employees (Revision of Pay
                                   and Allowances) Rules, 2009 or interest for delayed
                                   payment of that benefit, as the case may be.
                               The point of law, which is involved in this writ
                 application, has already been settled by a judgment
                 delivered by a Single Bench of this Court in W.P. 10750 (W)
                 of 2007 on July 9, 2008 in the matter of Abha Acharya -vs-
                 State of West Bengal & Others. In the above case the
                 petitioner was a primary school teacher and there was delay
                 in releasing his gratuity money. Operative portion of the
                 above decision is quoted below :"Following the said Judgment and/or Order, I dispose of W.P. No.
  1867 (W) of 2007 on 04.04.2008 and in other similar matters, I
 observed that since the issue was similar, the Order that I had passed
 in the said W.P. No. 1867 (W) of 2007 should govern those cases also.However today when this huge pile of cases were heard, a
 submission was made which was not made in the cases before me
 referred to above, and which was to the effect that there cannot be any
 adjudication on the question as to who was responsible for delay in
 matters pertaining to payment of gratuity because the entitlement to
 gratuity is automatic and is to be paid on the very day the person
 retires.   Even the learned Advocate General did not dispute this
 contention and very frankly and fairly stated that so far as the gratuity
 is concerned, it has to be paid on the date the person retires with the
 only exception that it can be withheld in cases where a departmental
 action is pending against the concerned employee."On the basis of the above observation, direction was
 given to the respondent authority to pay interest of gratuity at the rate
 of 10% per annum. I do not find any reason for disagreeing with the
 above decision.Accordingly, I direct the respondent authority to give 9%
interest per annum on the revised gratuity amount paid to the
petitioner from the date when it was due and payable till the date of its
actual payment. Such payment shall be made within 90 days from the
date of communication of this order along with copy of this writ
application upon the Director of Pension, Provident Fund and Group
Insurance, Government of West Bengal as also the concerned Treasury
Officer.It is further made clear that failure on the part
of the respondent authority to pay the aforesaid interest
within the stipulated time, an additional interest at the rate
of 2% per annum shall be paid to the petitioner.It is necessary to point out that the rate of
interest is fixed at 9% per annum taking into consideration
the highest rate of interest payable by a nationalised bank
on fixed deposit.The    writ     petition,   is,   thus,   disposed     of.
However, there will be no order as to costs.Urgent photostat certified copy be supplied to the parties,
if applied for, on priority basis.(Debasish Kar Gupta, J.)