Recovery of overpaid salaries is impermissible without employee fault, especially after substantial time has passed since payment.

JUDGMENT

The petitioners in W.P.(C) No.20088/2021 are aided school teachers working at the AKMHS Thadikkadu, whereas the petitioners in W.P.(C) No.19979/2021 are retired teachers of the said school. They have approached this Court being aggrieved by the order issued by the respondents directing them to return the amounts paid to them for undertaking the enumerator work in connection with the preparation of the National Population Register (NPR) on the ground that they had been granted Higher Earned Leave than what was eligible to them.

2. It is the case of the petitioners that they are/were aided school teachers (Vacation department). They contend that they had undertaken the enumerator work in connection with the preparation of the NPR on the basis of the list prepared by the District Administration. They contend that they have carried out the vacation duty during April 2010 to May 2010 for a period of 32 days and they are thus eligible for Earned Leave as per Rule 81 r/w. Rule 12(7) of KSR, Part-I.

3. For the sake of convenience, reference to parties and Exhibits shall be as per their description in W.P.(C) No. 19979 of 2021.

4. According to the petitioners, without taking note of the hard work of the petitioners, Ext.P4 was issued by the 1st respondent wherein it is stated that the teachers are eligible for leave surrender only for 8 days. As a matter of fact, the petitioners had worked for 30 days for the purpose of conducting census. They contend that the Government after considering the grievance of the petitioners had issued Ext.P5 order and had directed the respondents not to implement Ext.P4 Government Order until further notice.

5. According to the petitioners, after several years, respondents 3 and 4 have initiated steps to recover the amount towards excess salary drawn by them. The petitioners contend that the teachers from Kottayam district had approached this Court and by Ext.P6 judgment dated 22.3.2021, this Court had set aside the orders as per which, recovery was ordered and the respondents were directed to ensure that all service and retiral benefits of the petitioners therein are disbursed. It is in the afore circumstances that the petitioners are before this Court seeking the following reliefs:

(i) issue a writ of certiorari to quash Ext.P3 and P4.

(ii) issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order directing the 7th respondent to recall Ext.P3.

(ii) issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order directing the respondents to stop further proceedings of Ext.P3 based on Ext.P4 and pass appropriate

further orders in the spirit of Ext.P5.

iv) declare that the petitioners are entitled for the total amount of surrender of earned leave sanctioned as per duty certificate submitted in connection with work assignment as enumerator duty

of census 2011.

6. I have heard Sri. Siji Antony, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and Smt. Nisha Bose, the learned Senior Government Pleader.

7. I have considered the submissions advanced and have perused the records.

8. The materials placed on record reveals that the petitioners were engaged as enumerators and after undergoing training, they had conducted house listing and housing census operations in connection with the preparation of NPR from 12.04.2010 to 27.05.2010. At the time of engaging the petitioners as enumerators, they had been granted the benefit of earned leave as per the relevant provisions of Part I of the KSR. There is no case for the respondents that any benefit was obtained by the petitioners on account of any fault or error or reasons that can be attributed to him/her so as to initiate recovery of the amount which is stated to have been paid in excess.

9. I find that an identical issue was raised by teachers in various schools under the Education Department in Ernakulam District and a learned Single Judge of this Court relying on the declaration of law in State of Punjab v. Rafiq Masih (White Washer) ( 2015(