BALRAM JHA Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner in this writ application has prayed for a direction upon the respondents to restrain them from recovering a sum of Rs. 1,00,871/- from his pension and for issuance a direction to the respondents to pay him the amount of pension regularly.

(2.) Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned counsel for the Respondent No. 4.

(3.) It appears, a counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the Respondent No. 4 namely the Accountant General, Jharkhand, Ranchi in which it has been explained that though the petitioner's admissible gratuity, calculated on the basis of his last pay drawn, was Rs. 61,875/- but due to an error, the provisional gratuity which was paid to the petitioner was a sum of Rs. 1,62,746/- and thereby the petitioner had received a sum of Rs. 1,00,871/- as excess payment. It has also been explained that the petitioner has retired from service on 31.01.1997 i.e. before the actual effective date (01.04.1997) of the monetary benefits for revision of pension and gratuity. Therefore, even as per Government resolution dated 22.12.1999, no arrear is admissible to those employees who retired during the period from 01.01.1996 to 31.03.1997. The petitioner therefore being not entitled to any amount of gratuity beyond the actual payable amount of Rs. 61,875/-, is liable to refund the excess paid amount and the petitioner's ex-employer is therefore entitled to recover such amount from the petitioner's pension as per the statutory provisions of the respondents' Rules in this context.