The court ruled against arbitrary recovery of excess salary, emphasizing protections for employees and the necessity for compliance with procedural justice.

ORDER :

S.K.PANIGRAHI, J.

1. This matter is taken up through hybrid arrangement.

2. In this Writ Petition, the Petitioner has made a prayer to quash the order dated 31.03.2008 passed by the Opposite Party No.2/Director, Secondary Education, Orissa, Bhubaneswar. The petition calls into question the action of Opposite Party No.2 in directing for recovery of excess amount from the salary of the Petitioner as his pay scale was revised erroneously for the second time under 1981 ORSP Rules. The Petitioner has further prayed for a direction from this Court to the Opposite Parties to fix his pay in the senior S.E.S. cadre (Headmaster) with effect from 01.01.2008 as per the exercise of option suitably in the scale of pay of Rs.5700- 9900/- and taking into account the last pay drawn by him in Junior SES cadre at Rs.8000/- as on 01.01.2008.

I. Facts of the case:

3. The Petitioner being a Science Graduate, was appointed as a Science Teacher by the erstwhile Managing Committee of Menda High School, in the Sub- Division of Sonepur, which was earlier in Bolangir District and now in the district of Sonepur. The school in question was an aided educational institution within the meaning of Section 3 (b) of the Orissa Education Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act” for brevity) and was under the Direct Payment Scheme of the State Government when the Petitioner was appointed.

4. In the staffing pattern prescribed by the State Government, the post held by the Petitioner was a Trained Graduate Post. But, as the Petitioner was an untrained candidate at the time of appointment, he was given untrained scale of pay, which was equivalent to trained intermediate scale of pay. The Petitioner acquired his B.Ed. qualification in August, 1979 and thereby he was eligible to draw the Trained Graduate Scale of Pay, since the Petitioner was appointed against a Trained Graduate Post.

5. The Petitioner was also extended the Trained Graduate Scale of pay by the Government with effect from 14.08.1980, though the Petitioner was entitled the same on the date when he acquired the training qualification. Therefore, the Petitioner requested the authority to extend such scale of pay in his favour with effect from the date he acquired the training qualification. However, since the request made by the Petitioner for release of trained graduate scale of pay with effect from August, 1979 was not approved by the Competent Authority. Aggrieved thereby, the Petitioner approached this Court by way of Writ Petition vide O.J.C. No. 2070 of 1991, which was decided by this Court in favour of the Petitioner vide order dated 29.07.1991, giving a direction to the Opposite Parties to release the Trained Graduate Scale of pay in favour of the Petitioner w.e.f. 18.08.1979 when the Petitioner acquired such qualification.

6. Accordingly, the Petitioner's pay had been fixed. But, surprisingly, the Petitioner vide letter No.17747 dated 31.03.2008 was communicated by the Opposite Party No.2 that the pay of the Petitioner in the Trained Graduate Scale (Junior SES) has been wrongly fixed and the Petitioner was paid higher salary than he was entitled to and thereby a direction was issued to refix the pay of the Petitioner in a lesser scale of pay directing to recover the excess payment made to the Petitioner from his salary.

II. Submissions on behalf of the Petitioner

7. Learned counsel for the Petitioner submitted that prior to the afor