2026:CGHC:1226 PAWAN KUMAR PAWAN KUMAR D 18 a : t 0 e 2 : : 2 5 0 9 2 + 6. 0 0 5 1 3 .0 0 8 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPS No. 6765 of 2021

1 - Smt. Madhu Gupta W/o Late Purushottam Prasad Gupta Aged About 46 Years R/o Village And Post Ulakiya, Police Station And Tahsil- Sitapur, District- Surguja, Chhattisgarh., District : Surguja (Ambikapur), Chhattisgarh ... Petitioner(s)

versus

1 - State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary, School Education Department, Mahanadi Bhawan, Mantralaya Atal Nagar, New Raipur, District- Raipur, Chhattisgarh., District :

Raipur, Chhattisgarh

2 - The District Education Officer Ambikapur, District- Surguja, Chhattisgarh., District :

Surguja (Ambikapur), Chhattisgarh

3 - The Block Education Officer Block Sitapur, District- Surguja, Chhattisgarh., District :

Surguja (Ambikapur), Chhattisgarh

4 - The Joint Director Accounts And Pension, Surguja Division, Ambikapur, District-

Surguja, Chhattisgarh., District : Surguja (Ambikapur), Chhattisgarh ... Respondent(s)

For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Harish Khuntiya, Advocate For State : Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Agrawal, PL Hon’ble Shri Justice Sachin Singh Rajput

Order on Board

08/01/2026 Challenge in this writ petition is to an order / communication dated

06.03.2021 (Annexure P-1) by which a direction was issued to recover an amount of Rs. 75,690/- from the death-cum-retrial benefits of husband of the petitioner.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that her husband was working as Head Master in Primary School in School Education Department and died in harness on 30.08.2020. While settling the retiral dues, the impugned order was passed an amount of Rs. 75,690/- was recovered from the death-cum-retiral dues of the petitioner’s husband. He submits that the alleged excess payment recovered is on account of some wrong fixation of pay during the service tenure of the petitioner’s husband. He submits that after the death of the petitioner husband, the recovery cannot be made from the death-cum-retiral dues of the petitioner’s husband. He placed reliance on the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in case of State of Punjab and others Vs. Rafi Masih (white Washer) and others reported in (2015) 4 SCC 334 and the judgment passed by this Court in case of Smt. Shashikal Gupta Vs. State of Chhattisgarh and others in WPS No. 4760 of 2020 dated 10.12.2020.

3. State counsel on the other hand opposing the writ petition submits that since the process of calculating the death-cum-retiral dues payable to the petitioner, it was detected that the husband of the petitioner while in service has been paid certain excess payment because of erroneous fixation of pay. He further submits that in the process of the erroneous fixation of pay, the husband of the petitioner has received certain excess payment which he was not otherwise entitled for. After it was detected, the respondents decided to recover the amount from the dues payable to the petitioner.

4. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the records.

5. There is no dispute to the fact that the husband of the petitioner was working as Head Master in Primary School. None of the counsel is in a position the dispute that it is the Class-3 post and he died in harness on 30.08.2020. It is not the case of the respondents that the excess payment was paid to the deceased employee on account of some misrepresentation of fraud played. The erroneous fixation of pay can not be attributed to the deceased employee but it was on account of error on the part of the department.

6. At this juncture, it would be essential to note here the law laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in case of Rafiq Masih (Supra) wherein in paragraph 18 has held as under:-

“18. It is not possible to postulate all situations of hardship, which would govern employees on the issue of recovery, where payments have mistakenly been made by the employer, in excess of their entitlement. Be that as it may, based on the decisions referred to herein above, we may, as a r