Meena Devi vs State Of U.P. And 5 Others
2023 Latest Caselaw 8452 ALL

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
 
 

?Court No. - 32
 

 
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 15745 of 2022
 

 
Petitioner :- Meena Devi
 
Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 5 Others
 
Counsel for Petitioner :- Ankit Saran,Rohan Gupta
 
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,G.Tripathi,Gambhir Tripathi
 

 
Hon'ble Vivek Chaudhary,J.

Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned counsel for the respondents and perused the record.

Petitioner has approached this Court challenging the order dated 25.04.2022 whereby the Executive Officer has directed for recovery of Rs. 22,85,322.00/- from petitioner.

Petitioner was a Class-IV employee (Safai Karamchari) and recovery order is passed on the ground that she had changed her date of birth in the service record and, therefore, worked for much longer period of time and received salary for such period.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that it is not in dispute that petitioner did perform her duty and was paid salary for performance of the same. Therefore, once petitioner has worked the recovery of the salary cannot be made from her otherwise the same would be treated as taking begar from the petitioner by the State Government. The second submission is that even otherwise the matter is fully covered by the judgment in State of Punjab vs. Rafiq Masih which provides that with regard to State Government employees more particularly Class-III and Class-IV employees, even if any salary or benefits are paid in excess, the same should not be recovered as it would cause serious prejudice to their financial condition.

Learned Standing Counsel and Shri G. Tripathi for respondent no.4(Nagar Palika Parishad) submits that petitioner has manipulated the record and, therefore, the recovery order is rightly passed.

Having considered the submission of the learned counsel for the respondents and counsel for the petitioner, it appears that petitioner did perform her duty as Class-IV employees and she is entitled for her salary. The salary paid for work perform by her cannot be directed to be recovered. Even otherwise the matter is fully covered by the judgment of State of Punjab vs. Rafiq Masih, petitioner being a Class-IV employee.

In light of law settled by the Supreme Court in the case of Rafiq Masih (Supra) the impugned order dated 14.04.2022 cannot stand and is set aside.

With the aforesaid direction, writ petition is allowed.

[Vivek Chaudhary,J.]

Order Date :- 22.3.2023

M.S. Ansari