RAJENDRA KUMAR SHARMA Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed by the two petitioners from whose retiral dues the respondent no. 5 has made certain deductions and from the gratuity amount payable to the petitioners. The petitioner no. 1 was working on the post of Subedar (M) w.e.f. 30/11/2019 and petitioner no. 2 retired form service on 30/10/2020.

(2.) In the course of settlement of their post retiral benefits, the respondent no. 5 recovered an amount of Rs. 84,702.00 from the petitioner no. 1 and an amount of Rs. 29,866.00 from petitioner no. 2, except for the order Annexure P-1 which reflects recovery being made to in respect of the aforesaid amount, there is no further details available as to under what head the deduction is being made and as to when the alleged excess payment was made to the petitioners and also as to whether the said excess payment was paid to the petitioners on account of fraud or misrepresentation made by the petitioners. The department has straight away carried out deduction from the retiral dues payable to the petitioners without issuance of any show cause notice or any opportunity of explanation being provided to the petitioners.

(3.) Contention of the petitioners is that the action on the part of the respondents in so far as initiating the recovery proceedings after retirement is otherwise impermissible under law in the light of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of "State of Punjab and others etc. vs. Rafiq Masih (White Washer) etc. " reported in 2015 AIR SCW 501.