Can’t recover excess salary paid erroneously to retd officer: HC to govt
Times of India | 13 December 2024
123 Kolkata: The state is not entitled to recover the excess amount paid to a retired officer due to its mistake, the Calcutta High Court held recently. The case pertains to a retired Indian Air Force officer who was appointed by West Bengal National Volunteer Force as a platoon commander in 1995. The state erroneously paid him the same salary received by him during his IAF tenure.
Even though it was stated by a circular in 1995 that reemployed military pensioners have a fixed pay scale by the state and not their previous military position or salary, the officer's higher pay was not adjusted till superannuation in 2019. The state, then, sought to recover the excess amount from his salary.
The officer had moved the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal which protected him from the recovery but did not allow the continuation of the erroneous pay scale. The division bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta observed that despite the Tribunal's order in 2011, the state continued with the mistake rather than revert back to the pay scale fixed. While directing no recovery of ‘overdrawal' from the salary up to Apr 7, 2011, the HC directed that the state will be entitled to recover excess amount paid from 2011 till superannuation through his terminal benefits in six installments.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.