Sunil Kumar vs Uttarakhand Transport Corporation And Others

Pankaj Purohit, J

By means of this writ petition, petitioner has sought indulgence of this Court for quashing the impugned office order dated 26.08.2021 passed by respondent No.2 and the recovery statement pursuant to Letter No.164 dated 11.11.2020 issued by respondent No.2 on 03.06.2024 and further prayer has been made for directing the respondents not to recover the excess amount paid to the petitioner pursuant to letter No.164 dated 11.11.2020 after granting 3rd ACP to him.

Heard learned counsel for the parties.

Brief facts in nutshell are that petitioner was appointed as Conductor with the respondents-department on 23.05.1985. He was granted promotion on the post of Assistant Grade-II in the year 2012 and after attaining the age of superannuation retired on 30.06.2024. Respondent-authority issued a letter No.164 dated 11.11.2020, whereby special audit committee had duly inspected his record as well as other incumbents in the department, thereafter, without giving any opportunity of hearing to him, respondent-authority pursuant to aforesaid letter dated 11.11.2020 arbitrarily amended his pay scale. On 26.08.2021, respondent No.2 passed the impugned order, whereby, his pay scale has wrongly been revised. On 03.06.2024, the respondent-authority prepared a chart pursuant to the aforesaid letter No.164 dated 11.11.2020 and re-fixed his pay-scale, and, thereafter, a recovery of Rs.1,04,551/- was shown from him during the period January 2012 to October 2017. Hence, this petition.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the controversy has been set at rest by a Coordinate Bench of this Court, vide judgment and order dated 14.06.2022 passed in WPSS No.1593 of 2021 Balam Singh Aswal Vs. Managing Director and Others and Batch of writ petitions, which are subsequently affirmed by the Division Bench of this Court vide judgment and order dated 04.04.2024 in Special Appeal No.245 of 2022, Managing Director, Uttarakhand Transport Corporation, Dehradun & Others Vs. Ashok Kumar Saxena, and Batch of Special Appeals.

Learned counsel for the respondents has also submitted that the present matter is squarely covered by the judgment and order dated 14.06.2022, which was affirmed in Special Appeals as referred above by learned counsel for the petitioners vide judgment dated 04.04.2024.

In this view of the matter, the writ petition is allowed in terms of the judgment and order dated 14.06.2022 passed by a Coordinate Bench of this Court in WPSS No.1593 of 2021 Balam Singh Aswal Vs. Managing Director and Others and Batch, which is affirmed by a Division Bench of this Court in Special Appeal No.245 of 2022 Managing Director, Uttarakhand Transport Corporation, Dehradun & Others Vs. Ashok Kumar Saxena and Batch, vide judgment dated 04.04.2024. The case of the petitioner shall abide by the aforesaid judgment and order dated 14.06.2022, which is later on affirmed vide judgment dated 04.04.2024 in Special Appeals as stated above.