MAHENDER SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition is filed by two petitioners. The two petitioners impugn the action of the employer Dena Bank, represented by respondent nos. 2 and 3 herein, whereby the employer has sought to make recovery of amounts which were wrongly paid to the petitioner as increments. Petitioners had claimed benefits of payment of increments by claiming that they had cleared the B.A Graduation Degree by passing the ,,Sahitya Sudhakar Examination of ,,Bombay Hindi Vidyapeeth.

(2.) THERE is a little bit of history to this case and which needs to be noted because actually the first recoveries were sought to be effected by the employer in terms of the letter dated 16.7.1999. An association of the employees alongwith the two petitioners herein, approached this Court in W.P.(C) No. 6661/1999 challenging the actions of recoveries initiated by the employer. This writ petition was disposed of in terms of the order dated 21.7.2009 by a learned Single Judge of this Court whereby the petitioners were entitled to make representations and the employer was to take clarification from the Ministry of Human Resource and Development with respect to equivalence of Sahitya Sudhakar Examination of Bombay Hindi Vidyapith being equal or not equal to a Graduation Degree.

(3.) THE last line of the aforesaid letter clearly shows that the Ministry had opined that the Sahitya Sudhakar examination conducted by Bombay Hindi Vidyapeeth is not a full fledged B.A.Degree course. Counsel for the petitioners also agrees that the Sahitya Sudhakar examination is only a 2 year course of four subjects whereas a normal graduation degree is of 3 years and which comprises of various subjects for each of the three years.