07.04.2026 65 sdas WPA 17363 of 2025 Mst. Shefali Khatun Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors. Mrs. Sabita Khutia (Bhunya) …. for the petitioner 1. Let affidavit-of-service, as filed in Court, be kept on record. 2. In spite of service, none appears for the respondents. 3. The husband of the petitioner was an approved Assistant Teacher of a secondary school and retired from his said service on superannuation on April 30, 2016 and expired on March 13, 2024. 4. The first pension payment order of the concerned employee was issued on June 08, 2016. 5. Under the ROPA Rules, 2019, there was revision of the pension, gratuity and computation of pension of the pensioners vide Memorandum of the Government of West Bengal bearing no. 53/ES/P/P&B/10M-99/2019 dated February 14, 2020 and the revised pension payment order of the petitioner under ROPA, 2019 was issued on July 30, 2021, in terms thereof, the petitioner 2 received the arrear pension and gratuity on August 06, 2021. 6. The petitioner in the instant writ petition is claiming that he is entitled to interest for the delayed payment of the said gratuity and arrear pension and is praying issuance of writ of mandamus commanding the Director of Pension, Provident Fund and Group Insurance and the concerned Treasury Officer, the respondents herein, to pay such interest. 7. It is now well settled that the petitioner is entitled to the interest, as prayed for. 8. The aforementioned respondents are, therefore, directed to pay interest on the revised gratuity and arrear pension @ 8% per annum from the date of notification of the aforesaid Government order i.e. February 14, 2020 till the date of payment of revised gratuity and arrear pension in terms of the said revised pension payment order. 9. The payment, as aforestated, shall be made within a period of twelve weeks from the date of communication of this order, in default, the said arrears amount shall fetch an additional interest of 2% per annum. 10. With the aforestated directions, the writ petition is, thus, disposed of. 11. There shall, however, be no order as to costs. 3 12. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties on usual undertaking. (Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.)