Surendra Singh Thakur vs Shri Jitendra Shukla
2023 Latest Caselaw 1041 Chatt

                                             1

                  HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR
                                  Cont. No. 708 of 2020
                 Surendra Singh Thakur Versus Shri Jitendra Shukla & Anr.




17.02.2023

Mr. Somkant Verma, Advocate for the appellant.

Mr. Vipin Tiwari, Advocate for the State.

This Court has passed the following order:

"In so far as those cases where recovery is being made from a retired employee on the ground that they were paid salary, allowances, increments etc. while in service, in excess of their entitlement, the decision of the Supreme Court the case of Rafiq Masih (Supra) is squarely applicable. Their cases will have to be decided keeping in view the direction issued in para 18 of the said judgment. Needless to say, as provided in (I) of para 18 of the said judgment, recovery from employees belonging to Class III and Class IV service would be wholly impermissible and no recovery shall be made from them. In respect of cases governed in other cases, due examination of individual facts would be necessary. Furthermore, in cases, undertakings have been given, recovery would be permissible though after affording opportunity of hearing in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of High Court of Punjab and Haryana and ors. V. Jagdev Singh reported in AIR (2016)SC 3523, wherein exception to proposition(ii) of para 18 of Rafiq Masih's case was carved out as below-

"11. The principle enunciated in proposition(ii) above cannot apply to a situation such as in the present case. In the present case, the officer to whom the payment was made in the first instance was clearly placed on notice that any payment found to have been

made in excess would be required to be refunded. The officer furnished an undertaking while opting for the revised pay scale. He is bound by the undertaking." ,

The contemnor has filed return wherein it does not reflect that an opportunity of hearing has been given to the petitioner or not. The contemnor is directed to appear before this Court on the next date of hearing.

Post this matter on 15th of March, 2023.

Sd/-

(Narendra Kumar Vyas) JUDGE

amita