JUDGMENT :

1. By this petition, inter alia, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has raised an issue as to whether it is or it is not open to the respondent State Government to pass an order of recovery of alleged excess payment made to the petitioner when the Division Bench of this Court, after examining the issue, held that the mistake committed by the University in not extending the proper designation to the petitioner was rectified by the University as well as holding that the petitioner has been granted appropriate scale of pay. The petitioner is challenging the order dated 13.10.2011 passed by the Deputy Secretary, Education Department and consequential order dated 4.1.2012 passed by the respondent no.3 – Gujarat University, as being illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, unjust and violative of principles of natural justice.

2. The facts of the case, as culled out from the record, are as under:

2.1 The respondent no.3 – Gujarat University (hereinafter referred to as “the University”), issued an advertisement dated 31.3.1993, inviting applications for filling up of different posts in the University including the post of Personal Secretary to the Vice-Chancel