TEIN SINGH DAHIYA Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE undisputed fact is that the petitioner was enrolled in the Indian Army on 9.3.1987 as a Havildar Clerk (GD) and after completing Basic Training was paid salary in acting rank of Havildar w.e.f. 23.06.1988 with ante-dated seniority effective from 26.03.1988.

(2.) DEPUTED as a Clerk in the Quarter Master Section of 7015 Combined Workshop EME, on 29.07.1988, the petitioner was assigned additional duties as Coy Clerk of Recovery Company on 13.06.1990. Having become due for grant of substantive rank of Havildar w.e.f. 1.3.1990, petitioner was granted said substantive rank on 8.7.1990.

(3.) THE result was that the petitioner continued to receive salary and work as a Havildar; in the acting rank thereof. He continued to receive salary as a Havildar till the respondents superannuated the petitioner on 31.10.2009 and proceeded to recover `88,936/- from the final dues payable to the petitioner on the ground that while reducing the petitioner to a post of Sepoy inadvertently higher wages in the rank of Havildar was paid to him.