JUDGMENT AND ORDER :

By invoking the extra-ordinary and discretionary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has instituted the instant writ petition seeking inter alia a direction to the respondent authorities to refund a sum of Rs. 2,09,975/- along with interest to the petitioner from the period of deposit of the said amount till its realization and/or to deposit the loan amount by way of cheque/demand draft/cash in his Savings Account no. 20661145458 maintained at the State Bank of India, CGON, Gumi Branch Kamrup, Assam.

2. The necessary facts can be narrated, briefly, as follows : the petitioner is an employee of the North East Frontier Railway [NF Railway] and in the year 2016, he was serving as an Welder– II under the Senior Section Engineer [SSE]/P-Way/Chaygaon under the territorial jurisdiction of the Divisional Railway Manager [DRM][P], Rangia, NF Railway. The petitioner’s service records are maintained at and his salaries are being paid by the office of the DRM [P], Rangia, NF Railway i.e. the respondent no. 4. During the course of his service tenure, the petitioner in the year 2016, had applied to the Eastern & North East Frontier Railway Co-operative Bank Limited, Kolkata [‘the Bank’, for short] through the respondent no. 4 for extending him financial facility in the form of a loan. On receipt of the loan application, the Bank processed and sanctioned a loan amount of Rs. 2,43,900/- to the petitioner vide Loan Account no. 23203/53077 & CRBD Account no. 10216/5563 on 19.10.2016. The details of the loan amount, equated monthly installments [EMIs] to be paid, loan duration, etc. were mentioned in a Loan Deduction Memo issued by the Bank on 20.10.2016. As per the Loan Deduction Memo, the loan amount and interest were to be recovered by EMI @ Rs. 5,675/- and the CRBD recovery of Rs. 300/-. Thus, the total amount to be deducted every month from the monthly salary of the petitioner was Rs. 5,975/-. The loan amount of Rs. 2,43,900/- were to be recovered through 60 nos. of EMIs during the period from December 2016 to November, 2021 by way of deduction from the monthly salary of the petitioner.

2.1. It is the case of the petitioner that the employer of the petitioner i.e. the Divisional Railway Manager [DRM][P], Rangia, NF Railway started deducting the EMI amount from the salary of the petitioner since December, 2016 onwards continuously. The petitioner was, therefore, under the impression that after the deductions of the EMIs, the amount equal to the EMI was being duly adjusted against the Loan Account no. 23203/53077 of the Eastern & North East Frontier Railway Co-operative Bank Ltd., Kolkata each month. But, the petitioner was surprised when he received a Revised Variation Memo dated 19.12.2019 from the respondent no. 4. The Revised Variation Memo was issued in connection with the recovery of the loan amount and CRBD installments. By the Revised Variation Memo dated 19.12.2019, the Bank had requested the respondent no. 4 to recover the loan amount and CRBD installments from the petitioner as per the Statement mentioned therein. As per the Bank, the total outstanding dues of the petitioner as on 19.12.2019, stood at Rs. 3,10,294/- against the loan amount of Rs. 2,43,900/-. Declaring the status of the petitioner as defaulter, the Bank had asked the respondent no. 4 to deduct a sum of Rs. 15,461/- per month as EMI and Rs. 300/- per month as CRBD. Thus, the respondent no. 4 was asked to deduct an amount of Rs. 15,761/- each month from the monthly salary of the petitioner from the month of January, 2020 onwards till December, 2021.

2.2. Aggrieved by receipt of the Revised Variation Memo dated 19.12.2019 despite deduction of the EMI amounts from the salary account of the petitioner continuously since December, 2016, the petitioner approached the respondent no. 4 seeking clarification as regards the entire matter. Subsequent thereto, the position became clear to the petitioner when