Malati Maity vs State Of West Bengal & Ors.

The petitioner has filed the present writ petition for a direction upon the respondent no. 2, the Director of Pension, Provident Fund & Group Insurance,

Government of West Bengal to refund the deducted amount of Rs. 12,774/- with interest at the rate of 10% per annum from the date of retirement of

the husband of the petitioner till the date of payment and re-fix his/her pension accordingly.

The petitioner’s case in short as follows that the husband of the petitioner was an employee of the concerned School. After completion of service,

the husband of the petitioner retired from service on 31.1.1996 as the husband of the petitioner attended the age of superannuation. After retirement

of the husband of the petitioner, the concerned authority has prepared the papers for pension and accordingly, those papers were forwarded to the

concerned District Inspector of Schools for payment of retirement benefits of the petitioner including gratuity amount but the said pension papers were

withheld.

For the reason, the husband of the petitioner has drawn excess amount due to wrong fixation of the husband of petitioner’s pay scale during

his/her service tenure and the authority forced the husband of the petitioner to refund the overdrawal amount. It also appears that the concerned

authority reduced the husband of the petitioner’s pay drawn at the time of retirement of the husband of the petitioner and calculated the

overdrawal amount of Rs. 12,774/-. Thereafter the Pension Payment Order was issued by the Assistant Director of Pension, Provident Fund and

Group Insurance vide Memo dated 31.3.2002 wherefrom it reveals that the authority had deducted the husband of the petitioner’s basic pay

drawn at the time of retirement and deducted the amount of Rs. 12,774/- from the gratuity of the husband of the petitioner. Only after retirement from

the Pension Payment Order it is found that Rs. 12,774/- had been deducted from the husband of the petitioner’s pensionary benefits.

Learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner submits that it is a settled law laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in several cases which has

been time to time followed by the Hon’ble Division Bench as well as the learned Single Bench of this Hon’ble Court in several decisions. In

support of his/her contention, learned Advocate for the petitioner relied on the decisions reported in 1994(2) SCC 521 (Shyambabu Verma & Ors.-vs-

Union of India & Ors.) and 2009(3) Supreme Court Cases 475 (Syed Abdul Qadir & Ors. â€"vs- State of Bihar & Ors.). He/she also relied on the

latest Supreme Court decision reported in 2015 (1) Supreme Today 671 ( State of Punjab & Ors. â€"vs- Rafiq Masih (White Washer) etc. ).

Paragraph 12 at pages 19 and 20 of the aforesaid decision is quoted below :

“12. It is not possible to postulate all situations of hardship, which would govern employees on the issue of recovery, where payment have

mistakenly been made by the employer, in excess of their entitlement. Be that it may, based on the decisions referred to herein above, we may, as a

ready reference, summarise the following few situations, wherein recoveries by the employers, would be impermissible in law :

(i) Recovery from employees belonging to Class â€"III and Class â€"IV service (or Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ service).

(ii) Recovery from retired employees, or employees who are due to retire within one year, of the order of recovery.

(iii) Recovery from employees when the excess payment has been made for a period in excess of five years, before the order of recovery is issued.

(iv) Recovery in cases where an employee has wrongfully been required to discharge duties of a higher post and has been paid accordingly, even

though he should have rightfully been required to work against an inferior post.

(v) In any other case, where the Court arrives at the conclusion, that recovery if made from the employee, would be iniquitous or harsh or arbitrary to

such an extent, as would far outweigh the equitable balance of the employer’s right to recover.â€​

Learned Advocate for the petitioner also relied on the Hon’ble Division Bench decision passed on 9th September, 2013 in W.P.S.T. No. 216 of

2013 (State of West Bengal & Ors. â€"vsAsis Das Gupta). Learned Advocate for the petitioner further contends that the point raised by the learned

Advocate for the petitioner that after long time the petitioner approached this Hon’ble Court, therefore, the writ petition should be dismissed on the

sole ground of delay for approaching before this Hon’ble Court.

After demolishing the argument of the State respondents, learned Advocate for the petitioner contends that since it is a fault on the part of the

respondent authority where the petitioner was not a party and moreover the petitioner was not at all informed by the authority and no opportunity was

given to the petitioner by the authority before such deduction, therefore, the argument advanced by the learned Advocate for the State respondents

that the petitioner came late before this Hon’ble Court cannot be sustained. In support of his/her contention, Learned Advocate for the petitioner

relied on one unreported judgement passed by the Hon’ble Division Bench in M.A.T. No. 1067 of 2010 (Smt. Nanda Rani Das â€"vs- State of

West Bengal & Ors.) where the Hon’ble Division Bench after considering the Hon’ble Supreme Court decision reported in 2008(8) Supreme

Court Cases 648 (Union of India â€"vs- Tarsem Singh) held as follows :

“It is true that the aforesaid overdrawn amount was deducted in the year 2001 and the petitioner approached before this Court after lapse of nine

years. However, on account of the aforesaid delay no third party right has accrued and it is only the petitioner who suffered due to non-payment of

the aforesaid amount by the respondent authorities. In the case of Union of India vs. Tarsem Singh, reported in (2008) 8 Supreme Court cases, 648,

the Hon’ble Supreme Court observed as follows : For example, if the issue relates to payment or refixation of pay or pension, relief may be

granted in spite of delay as it does not affect the rights of third parties. But if the claim involved issues relating to seniority or promotion, etc., affecting

others delay would render the claim scale and doctrine of laches/limitation will be applied.â€​

Learned Advocate appearing for the State respondents submits on instruction that the State Authority is not an obligation to refund the amount which

has been deducted as it was wrongly given by the State Authority. Therefore, since the petitioner is not entitled to enjoy this amount which was

wrongly given by the State Authority when it was detected then the State Authority has the right to deduct from the husband of the petitioner’s

gratuity.

Therefore, in conclusion learned Advocate for the State respondents submits that the husband of the petitioner is not entitled to get any refund as

he/she was wrongly allowed by the State Authority to enjoy the said amount for which he/she is not entitled to. Considering the submissions advanced

by the learned Advocates for the respective parties and after perusing the records and averments and also after considering the decisions of the

Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Syed Abdul Qadir; Rafiq Masih and Tarsem Singh (supra), I am of the view that the amount which was

wrongly deducted by the authority from the husband of the petitioner’s pensionary benefits without giving an opportunity of hearing to the husband

of the petitioner when the husband of the petitioner is very much in service cannot be accepted.

In the present case, therefore, deduction from the gratuity amount of the husband of the petitioner cannot affect the rights of any third party and

following the aforesaid decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the Hon’ble Division Bench of this Hon’ble Court, I am inclined to

grant relief to the husband of the petitioner in spite of the delay. In view of the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Shyambabu

Verma & Ors. (supra) and also in the subsequent decision in the case of Syed Abdul Qadir (supra), I hold that in the facts of the present case,

recovery of excess amount cannot be allowed after retirement of the employee concerned since the said excess amount was not paid on account of

any misrepresentation or fraud on the part of the petitioner.

Therefore, the aforesaid deduction of the overdrawn amount of Rs. 12,774/- from the gratuity amount benefits of the husband of the petitioner after

retirement cannot be approved by this Court. Therefore, I hold that the impugned deduction by the respondent authority is bad in law. The respondent

authorities are, therefore, directed to pay the aforesaid overdrawn amount of Rs. 12,774/- to the petitioner within a period of eight weeks from the

date of communication of this order. With the aforesaid direction, this writ petition is allowed. There will be no order as to costs. Urgent certified

photostat copy of this order, if applied for, shall be given to the parties as expeditiously as possible on compliance of all necessary formalities.