Calcutta High Court: The writ petition was preferred by a primary school teacher, aggrieved that an amount of Rs. 68, 556 was deducted from the pension payment order by the authorities, due to alleged over-drawl.
Learned counsel on behalf of the petitioner, by relying on the Supreme Court’s decision of Shyam Babu Verma v. Union of India, (1994) 2 SCC 521 contends that the excess amount can’t be recovered from the retiral benefit of an employee unless it is due to some fraud or misrepresentation. In the case of Syed Abdul Qadir v. State of Bihar, (2009) 3 SCC 475 the Supreme Court observed that “the relief against recovery is granted by courts not because of any right in the employees, but in equity, exercising judicial discretion to relieve the employees from the hardship that will be caused if recovery is ordered.”
Therefore, Arijit Banerjee, J. quoted the observation of another learned Judge, “the choice is like choosing between the devil and deep sea” and ordered that, by considering the decisions of the Hon’ble Division Bench in the cases of Shyam Babu Verma, Syed Abdul Qadir, Chandi Prasad Uniyal v. State of Uttarakhand, (2012) 8 SCC 417 and State of Punjab v. Rafiq Masih, (2014) 8 SCC 883 held that no recovery can be made from a retired employee who is due to retire within one year from the order of recovery. Further, no recovery could be made in the present case from the retrial benefits of the petitioner even after a delay of 15 years by considering the decision of the case of Union of India v. Tarsem Singh, (2008) 3 SCC 648, as it did not affect the third party rights. [Jaynal Alam v. State of West Bengal, 2017 SCC OnLine Cal 10406, decided on 12.07.2017]