BETHAMPUDI LEELA KUMARI Vs. ANDHRA PRADESH SOCIAL WELFARE RESIDENTIAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS SOCIETY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner challenges the memo, dated 6. 12. 2007, where under the 2nd respondent directed the respective institutions, in which the petitioners are working, to deduct the entire House Rent Allowance (HRA ).

(2.) THE petitioners are employed in different capacities, in the Andhra pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions, and all of them are working in the Residential Junior College at Vatluru of West Godavari District. Since it is a residential institution, all of them are provided accommodation, by the Educational Institutions Society, the 1st respondent herein. Rents fixed from time to time for the building, are being deducted from the salaries of the petitioners. At a meeting of the Zonal Office held on 15. 11. 2007, the 1st respondent is said to have directed that the actual HRA, being paid to the employees, must be deducted, instead of rents fixed for the quarters.

(3.) SRI G. Vidya Sagar, learned counsel for the petitioners, contends that the hra is part of emoluments and it cannot be deducted, on the basis of administrative instructions. He contends that the respondents themselves have fixed the rents for the accommodation provided to the petitioners, and deduction of amounts, in excess of that, is impermissible in law, apart from being arbitrary and capricious.