MADAN GOPAL GOSWAMI Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Court : There is no merit in the appeal and the substantive prayer made in the writ petition and repeated in the appeal is founded on an erroneous understanding of a Supreme Court judgment to be the law declared under Article 141 of the Constitution.

(2.) It appears that this appellant was a part of several employees who did not have any promotional avenues and, upon an earlier writ petition being filed, an expert body was required to look into the grievances and career progression matters. Thereafter, the employer introduced a promotion policy along with increments to the salary. The petitioner was one of the initial candidates who obtained the benefit of both the promotion and the increased salary. It was later discovered that those who had availed of the promotion could not have obtained the increased salary at the lower level prior to their promotion. It was, thus, discovered that the petitioner had been paid much in excess of what was legitimately due to the petitioner owing to a mistake on the part of the employer.

(3.) During the last few months of the petitioner's tenure in service prior to his superannuation, the excess payment already made to the petitioner was adjusted from the monthly salary bills of the petitioner and the last of such adjustments was completed a few months prior to the petitioner's retirement in June, 2005. It does not appear that the petitioner immediately protested the deductions made from the petitioner's salaries. Indeed, the petitioner quietly retired and collected all the retiral benefits before instituting the petition which remained pending for a considerable period of time.