Kalpana Shantwan Shinde vs The State Of Maharashtra And Others
2024 Latest Caselaw 2304 Bom

Bombay High Court

Kalpana Shantwan Shinde vs The State Of Maharashtra And Others on 24 January, 2024

Author: Ravindra V. Ghuge

Bench: Ravindra V. Ghuge

2024:BHC-AUG:1732-DB


                                                                       12501.23wp etc
                                                (1)

                     IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                                BENCH AT AURANGABAD

                              911 WRIT PETITION NO. 12501 OF 2023
                               KALPANA SHANTWAN SHINDE
                                        VERSUS
                         THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS

                                           AND
                               WRIT PETITION NO. 11395 OF 2021
                              SMT. ULKA RATNAKAR BANSODE
                                         VERSUS
                         THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS

                                                  ....

                Mr D. R. Irale Patil, Advocate for Petitioners;
                Mr S. B. Narwade and Mr P. K. Lakhotiya, A.G.Ps. for
                Respondent No.1/State in respective Petitions
                Mr V. C. Patil, Advocate h/f Mr U. B. Bondar, Advocate for
                Respondent Nos.2 to 4 in WP/12501/2023
                Ms Supriya L. Pansambal, Advocate for Respondent Nos.2 and 3
                in WP/11395/2021

                                         CORAM : RAVINDRA V. GHUGE
                                                         AND
                                                 Y. G. KHOBRAGADE, JJ.

DATE : 24th January, 2024

PER COURT:

1. The second Writ Petition No.11395/2021 was not on

board. The learned Advocate for the present Petitioner, appears in

the said matter as well, on behalf of the Petitioner and prayed that

the matters be taken up for disposal.

12501.23wp etc

2. The present Petitioner Kalpana Shantwan Shinde, is

identically placed with the Petitioner in Writ Petition

No.11395/2021, namely, Ulka Ratnakar Bansode. By an order

dated 01/09/2023, we had passed a detailed order, concluding that

an undertaking extracted from the retiring employee, meaning

thereby, at the stroke of retirement or after retirement, is not to be

considered, for the reason that the said undertaking apparently is

extracted when the employee is about to retire and has no

bargaining power. We have, therefore, concluded in Ulka

Ratnakar Bansode (supra) that the recovered amount should be

returned to the Petitioner along with interest @ 6% p.a. from

01/02/2022 till 15/10/2023, within a period of 45 days.

3. The learned Advocate for the Petitioners relies upon a

judgment delivered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Bhagwan

Shukla Vs. Union of India and others, AIR 1994 SCC 2480,

concluding that the pay-scale cannot be reduced or altered to the

prejudice of the employee, without affording an opportunity of

hearing to the said employee. Apparently, in the present two

cases, an opportunity of hearing was not granted to the

Petitioners.

12501.23wp etc

4. In view of the above both these Writ Petitions are

partly allowed. The impugned order of revising pay-fixation of

the Petitioners by Respondent No.3, shall stand set aside. We

permit the Respondent/Zilla Parishad to issue notices to both

these Petitioners giving them at least 15 days time to reply. The

Petitioners shall tender their written replies/written submissions

within the said period. Thereafter, the Zilla Parishad would pass a

reasoned order by considering the entire record available. If the

Petitioners are aggrieved by the revised pay-fixation order, they

are at liberty to assail the same by resorting to a remedy, as is

permissible in law.

(Y. G. KHOBRAGADE, J.) (RAVINDRA V. GHUGE, J.) sjk