Now Reading: Chhattisgarh HC bars recovery of excess pay despite undertaking
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Chhattisgarh HC bars recovery of excess pay despite undertaking
The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that excess salary paid due to wrong pay fixation cannot be recovered from Class-III and Class-IV employees, even if they gave an undertaking or consent letter.…
The Story in Brief
The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that excess salary paid due to wrong pay fixation cannot be recovered from Class-III and Class-IV employees, even if they gave an undertaking or consent letter. Justice Bibhu Datta Guru quashed the recovery of Rs 6.26 lakh from a retired Sub-Inspector, noting that the excess payment was made without any fraud or misrepresentation by the employee. The petitioner said he deposited the amount under pressure after being told his retiral dues would be withheld. The court cited the Supreme Court's Rafiq Masih judgment and directed the state to refund the amount within three months.
The Indian Opinion
The court's ruling is a welcome check on a common government practice: recovering salary errors from lower-rung employees even when the mistake was not theirs. The petitioners' claim that they signed consent letters under threat of withheld retiral dues cannot be brushed aside. Still, the larger question remains: how many such recoveries are quietly made from Class-III and Class-IV staff across India before they reach a court? The government should fix its pay-fixation systems rather than pin the cost on employees.
Source: livelaw.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
