Excess Salary Paid Due To Wrong Interpretation Of Rules Can't Be Taken Back From Retd Employee: J&K High Court Quashes Recovery Order

Quashing a recovery order passed by the Srinagar Development Authority directing a retired employee, Mohammad Ramzan Tantray, to return the excess amount paid due to a mistake in his pay scale upgrade the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court today ruled that recovery of excess amount paid to an employee due to a mistake or wrong interpretation of rules cannot be made. In allowing his plea Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal cited Syed Abdul Qadir v. State of Bihar, and observed, “the recovery of the excess amount made to the employee due to mistake or wrong interpretation of rules cannot be made” Background of the Case: Tantray was appointed as a daily wager to work as an orderly in 1976 and was temporarily appointed as a Chowkidar in 1981. Upon his retirement on March 31, 2014, the Examiner/CAO, Local Fund Audit and Pensions, issued a notice recommending recovery of the excess amount paid due to this upgradation, amounting to Rs. In absence of any specific stand by the respondents with regard to the upgradation of the petitioner, the impugned letter dated 15.10.2014 cannot sustain in the eyes of law” Commenting on the issue of recovery of an excess amount from an employee made due to a mistake or wrong interpretation of rules Justice Nargal referred to multiple Supreme Court judgments and emphasized the principle that recovery from employees, especially after retirement, causes undue hardship and is not permissible unless there was fraud or misrepresentation by the employee.