NAINI GOPAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Notice for final disposal of the matter was issued by this Court on 30-7-20208 and the parties were heard finally by consent. Hence, Rule. The petition is being disposed of finally.

(2.) The petitioner Naini Gopal S/o Dhirendra Mohan Roy is retired as an Assistant Foreman from the Ordnance Factory at Bhandara with effect from 1-10-1994. The last drawn basic salary of the petitioner was Rs.2,675/- and the basic pension was fixed at Rs.1,334/- as on 1-10-1994. Consequent upon increase in the pension and the dearness allowance as per the recommendations of the 5th, 6th and 7th Pay Commissions, the basic pension of Rs.25,634/- was fixed, for which the petitioner was entitled to and accordingly he was paid.

(3.) In the month of August 2019, the basic pension amount of the petitioner was reduced from Rs.25,634/- to Rs.25,250/- with effect from 1-1-2016 and accordingly, the respondent No.3- the Centralized Pension Processing Centre of the State Bank of India, directed recovery of an amount of Rs.3,69,035/- from the pension payable to the petitioner in the installments of Rs.11,400/-, i.e. 1/3rd of the monthly pension with effect from 1-8-2019. The deduction of pension was without the consent or knowledge of the petitioner and, therefore, the petitioner filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 on 1-9-2019 to know the reason for deduction and details as to the revision of pension during the period 2015-16 and 2016-17. In response to this application, the petitioner received the reply on 20-9-2019 from the respondent No.3 informing that there was excess payment of pension of Rs.3,69,035/- to the petitioner, which was discovered after making the revised calculations.