Court Quashes Recovery of Excess Pay from Retired Employees' Pension Benefits.
16 October 2024
Unpaid salary/bonus/gratuity >> Workplace/ Professional Related
In Arun Valu Tambekar & Others v/s The State of Maharashtra & Others., the Petitioners, former employees of the Zilla Parishad, Solapur, challenged the recovery of excess amounts from their retiral benefits/pension due to erroneous revisions in their pay scales, which were implemented over a decade ago. The recoveries were initiated after their retirement, some amounts already having been deducted. The Petitioners argued that they were not involved in any fraud or manipulation when the pay scales were revised, and that the recoveries were unjust, particularly since they were not asked to sign any undertaking at the time of the pay revision.
The Zilla Parishad, represented by its advocate, argued that the recovery was valid due to undertakings signed by the Petitioners at the time of retirement. However, the court noted that these undertakings were extracted under coercive circumstances, and thus could not be considered legally binding. The court further clarified that the recovery initiated after retirement was not justifiable, especially when the Petitioners were not at fault.
Citing previous Supreme Court rulings, such as Syed Abdul Qadir vs. State of Bihar (2009) and State of Punjab vs. Rafiq Masih (2015), which emphasized that recoveries from retiral benefits should not be made in cases of genuine error without fraud, the court quashed the recovery orders. The Zilla Parishad was directed to refund the recovered amounts to the Petitioners or their legal heirs within 90 days, with interest if the payment was delayed.