IMPORTANT POINT
Recovery of excess salary from Group-C employees post-retirement is impermissible without fraud or misrepresentation, as established in Rafiq Masih (2015) 4 SCC 334.

ORDER :

1. The present writ petition has been filed for quashing Office Order No. 197/2016 passed by the respondent no. 3 the Principal District & Sessions Judge, Civil Court, Dhanbad, a copy of which has been communicated to the petitioner and other concerned authorities vide memo no. 1579-1582-G dated 21.04.2016 (Annexure-7 of the writ petition) issued under the signature of the respondent no. 4 the Registrar, Civil Court, Dhanbad, whereby a sum of Rs.2,82,337/- has been ordered to be recovered from the leave encashment amount of the petitioner stating that he has drawn excess salary of Rs.2,82,337/- during the period from 15.11.2000 till his date of retirement i.e., 29.02.2016 due to wrong fixation of pay scale in the previous years. Further prayer has been made for grant of monetary benefit of MACP in grade pay of Rs.4200/- to the petitioner which has been reduced to Rs.2800/- after his retirement. The petitioner has also prayed for issuance of direction upon the respondents to pay suitable interest over the amount of gratuity, leave encashment, arrears of 6th pay revision, pension as well as other amount of retiral dues besides damage and cost of litigation for harassing the petitioner by withholding payment of his legitimate dues.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner was duly appointed by the competent authority as ‘Assistant’ in the Civil Court, Dhanbad on 11.12.1982. His date of birth is 10.02.1956 and he accordingly retired from service on 29.02.2016 from Civil Court, Dhanbad on attaining the age of superannuation. The petitioner was not granted any promotion during his entire service period of more than 33 years. Though he was granted financial upgradations under the ACP Scheme vide Office Order No. 172/98 dated 19.08.1998 and letter no. 498 dated 22.02.2011 issued by the District & Sessions Judge, Dhanbad, however, the Law (Judicial) Department, Government of Jharkhand, Ranchi returned his service book without confirming the said financial upgradations stating that there was no entry in his service record regarding passing of the departmental examination as required under the Bihar Civil Court Staff (Class III and Class IV) Rules, 1992.

3. The petitioner represented the respondent no. 3 on 27.08.2008 through the respondent no. 4 requesting to grant the benefit of ACP after exempting him from passing the departmental examination on attaining the age of 50 years on 10.02.2006 in pursuance of circular no. 11691 dated 09.11.1983 issued by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms of the erstwhile Government of Bihar. Thereafter, the petitioner was granted the 1st A.C.P. with effect from 09.08.1999 in the pay scale of 5000-8000 by virtue of Office Order No. 175/2010 dated 30.03.2010 issued under the signature of District & Sessions Judge, Dhanbad. Further, vide Office Order No. 2/2016 as contained in memo no. 6-7-G dated 04.01.2016 issued under the signature of the respondent no. 3, the petitioner was exempted from passing the departmental examination and the benefit of 1st MACP was granted to him with effect from 30.03.2010 fixing his pay in the pay band of 5200-20,200 and grade pay of Rs.2800/.

4. Hence, the grade pay of the petitioner was reduced to Rs.2800/- from Rs.4200/- without communicating any reason to him. Subsequently, after retirement of the petitioner on 29.02.2016, a sum of Rs.2,82,337/- was ordered to be recovered from his leave encashment amount vide Office Order No. 197/2016 as contained in memo no. 1579-1582-G dated 21.04.2016 issued under the signature of the respondent no. 3 stating that the petitioner had drawn excess salary of Rs.2,82,337/- during the period from 15.11.2000 till his retirement due to wrong fixation of pay scale in the previous years.

5. It is further submitted that similarly situated co-employee of Civil Court, Dhanbad, namely, Anil Kumar Sinha had filed a writ petition being W.P. (S) No. 2734 of 2017 against illegal recovery of certain amount f