Recovery of excess payments from employees is impermissible when no fault or misrepresentation is established on their part.

JUDGMENT

1. Heard Mr. Kh. Tarunkumar, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. Jemon, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, Mr. Niranjan Sanasam, learned GA appearing for the respondents No. 1 to 4 and Mr. S. Suresh, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 5

In the present writ petition, the petitioner is challenging the gratuity payment order dated 22-11-2017 issued by the Office of the Accountant General (AE), Manipur ordering for recovering of a sum of Rs. 7,21,073.00/- from the gratuity payable to the petitioner allegedly on account of over-payment of pay and allowances to the petitioner and also praying for issuing direction to the respondents to refund the deducted amount of Rs. 1,89,889.00/- to the petitioner within a stipulated period.

2. The facts of the present case, in a nutshell, are that while the petitioner was serving as an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police in the Manipur Police Department, a Departmental Enquiry was held against him and on the basis of the enquiry report, the S.P., Ukhrul, issued an order dated 07-01-2010 imposing upon the petitioner a major punishment of withholding his increment with cumulative effect for a period of three years from the date of suspension of the petitioner from service. Subsequently, the petitioner retired from service as a Sub-Inspector of Police w.e.f. 29-02-2016 on attaining the age of superannuation. After the retirement of the petitioner, the Office of the Accountant General (AE), Manipur, issued a gratuity payment order dated 22-11-2017 for payment of a sum of Rs. 1,86,539/- as retirement gratuity. In the said order, it was also mentioned that a sum of Rs 7 21 073/- on account of over-payment of pay and allowances may be recovered. The said order also indicated that a sum of Rs. 1,89,889/- have also been deducted from the total gratuity payable to the petitioner.

3. The Office of the Principal Accountant General (AE), Manipur, respondent No. 5 herein, gave the following two reasons for issuing the impugned gratuity payment order and for deducting the amount of Rs. 1,89,889/- from the total gratuity amount payable to the petitioner:-

(i) On receipt of the pension proposal of the petitioner, the Office of the Principal Accountant General scrutinized the service record of the petitioner and found irregularities in fixation of his pay in that on promotion to the post of ASI, the petitioner's pay scale was fixed at Rs. 4,500/- on 21-08-2005 instead of fixing at Rs. 4,400/- As a result, consequent upon revision of pay under the Revision of Pay Rules, 2010, the petitioner's pay was fixed at Rs. 8,370 + 2,400/- on 01-01-2006 instead of Rs. 8,190 + 2400/-as can be seen from the document marked as Annexure - X/1 annexed to the counter affidavit of respondent No. 5. The above has resulted in over-payment to the petitioner more than his entitlement; and

(ii) By an order dated 07-01-2010 issued by the S.P., Ukhrul in connection with the Departmental Enquiry held against the petitioner, the petitioner was imposed a major penalty of withholding his increment with cumulative effect for a period of three years from the date of his suspension from service, however, in contravention of the said order issued by the disciplinary authority, the Department released the petitioner's full pay and allowances without withholding the increment for a period of three years with cumulative effect. This has also resulted in over-payment of pay and allowances to the petitioner.

4. Mr. Kh. Tarunkumar, learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is entitled to enjoy the full gratuity amount due payable to him as he never committed any misrepresentation or fraud and that if there was any fault on the part of the petitioner regarding drawing of his monthly pay and allowances, the concerned authorities should have informed him in time to rectify such mistake and that if the petitioner had drawn some excess amount due to the miscalculation by the authorities wit