STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. REKHA VIJAY DUBEY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Original Application Nos. 805-807 of 2016, on the file of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal, Mumbai Bench, Mumbai (hereafter "the Tribunal " for short), were allowed by the Judicial Member thereof by a common judgment and order dated 5th December 2018. The State of Maharashtra and its officers, being the respondents in all such original applications, have challenged the said judgment and order by presenting these three writ petitions.

(2.) The common thread that runs through the claims of all three original applicants before the Tribunal is that they have retired from service on diverse dates while holding Class III/Group 'C ' posts and their retirement benefits have been withheld on the ground that while in service, they had been paid salary in excess of their entitlement owing to erroneous fixation of their pay-scale. The question that arose for consideration before the Tribunal was, whether the State is justified in withholding the retirement benefits of the original applicants on the ground as noted above. Considering the decisions of the Supreme Court reported in (2015) 4 SCC 334 [State of Punjab and Others vs. Rafiq Masih (White Washer) and Ors.] as well as (2016) 14 SCC 267 [High Court of Punjab and Haryana and Ors. vs. Jagdev Singh], the Tribunal was of the view that the State was unjustified in seeking to recover excess payment from the retirement benefits of the original applicants. The Tribunal also found, as a matter of fact, that the original applicants were rightly fitted in the appropriate pay-scale commensurate with their status as 'Instructors ' and, therefore, negated the stand of the State that excess payment had been effected in their favour.

(3.) We have heard Mr. Pathan, learned Special Counsel appearing in support of the writ petitions and Mr. Bandiwadekar, learned advocate for the original applicants. The question we are tasked to decide is, whether the Tribunal was right in its interference with the impugned action of the State in seeking to recover from the retirement benefits of the original applications any sum paid in excess.