ORAL ORDER The petitioner superannuated on 31.1.2000 as a University Professor from P.B.S. College, Banka, a constituent unit of Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University. Even though he retired in the year 2000 when his retiral due was not paid he filed writ petition before this Court being C.W.J.C.No.15576 of 2008 praying for retiral due, which was disposed of by this Court by order dated 29.10.2009 directing the petitioner to make a representation before the University, which should be disposed of within six weeks and if money is found due, the same should be paid. The petitioner made such a representation but as is usual the same was not looked into, He accordingly filed an application for initiating a contempt proceeding being M.J.C.No.2391 of 2010. In the contempt preceding the University filed a show cause on or about 29.9.2011. In the said show cause though they have not stated as to what happened to the representation of the petitioner, it is stated that arrears of pension from 2000 to 2009 were paid in different part and the remaining of over Rs. 3,50,000/- was paid on 30.9.2010 almost one year after disposal of the writ petition. Similarly, with regard to arrear of salary, payment of about Rs. 1,89,639/- was made on 30.9.2010. So far as leave encashment is concerned, the remaining amount of Rs.23,009/- was paid vide cheque dated 24.2.2011.Thus, it is evident that all these payments were made long after the writ order. Considering these, this Court dismissed the application for initiation of contempt proceeding taking note of payment made. The petitioner has filed this writ petition claiming that delay in payment was not a trivial matter. The substantial amount of money was with-held. In this connection reference may be made to in the case of State of Kerala & ors. -v- M. Padmanabhan Nair since reported in (1985)1 Supreme Court Cases 429 of which I may just quote paragraphs 1 and 2 :- “1. Pension and gratuity are no longer any bounty to be distributed by the Government to its employees on their retirement but have become, under the decisions of this Court, valuable rights and property in their hands and any culpable delay in settlement and disbursement thereof must be visited with the penalty of payment of interest at the current market rate till actual payment. 2. 2. Usually the delay occurs by reason of non- production of the L.P.C (last pay certificate) and the N.L.C. (no liability certificate) from the concerned Departments but both these documents pertain to matters, records whereof would be with the concerned Government Departments. Since the date of retirement of every Government servant is very much known in advance we fail to appreciate why the process of collecting the requisite information and issuance of these two documents should not be completed at least a week before the date of retirement so that the payment of gratuity amount could be made to the Government servant on the date he retires or on the following day and pension at the expiry of the following month. The necessity for prompt payment of the retirement dues to a Government servant immediately after his retirement cannot be over-emphasised and it would not be unreasonable to direct that the liability to pay penal interest on these dues at the current market rate should commence at the expiry of two months from the date of retirement.” 3. In view of the aforesaid judgment of the Apex Court there is no escape that for this inordinate delay the petitioner is entitled to interest. By this delayed payment, the petitioner, in fact, has been deprived of his payment by erosion of money value that was due and payable in the year 2000 and is paid in the year 2011.The only compensation that can be given is interest in view of the judgment of the Apex Court aforesaid. 4. I, accordingly, direct that on the amount, as noted above, the petitioner would be entitled to receive interest at the rate of 6% per year from the date it was due up to time it has been paid. It shall be the responsibility of the Registrar of the University to see that the amount of interest is paid to the petitioner within a period of one month from today, failing which the Registrar of the University shall be liable to be proceeded for contempt. 5. With the aforesaid observations and directions, the writ petition is disposed of.