Recovery of excess salary impermissible from Group C employees due to employer's erroneous pay fixation.

(Order of the Court was made by N.SATHISH KUMAR, J.)

Challenging the impugned order for recovery of excess amount of salary paid amounting to Rs.6,13,928/-, this Writ Petition has been filed.

2.The petitioner was appointed as Typist on 26.02.2013 and later she was promoted to the post of Assistant and Record Keeper. While so, the petitioner was wrongly given with the annual periodical increment from 01.01.2025 to till date. Now the second respondent has initiated action for recovery of excess payment paid. Challenging the same, the petitioner has filed this Writ Petition.

3. A counter affidavit has been filed by the second respondent.

In the counter affidavit, it is the contention of the second respondent that the pay of the petitioner has been erroneously fixed by the authorities.

Therefore, they issued the impugned proceedings dated 16.12.2025.

4. This Court heard the submission made by the learned counsel appearing on either side and perused the materials available on record.

5. It is admitted by the respondents that the pay was erroneously fixed only by the authorities. At the relevant point of time, the petitioner was working in a Group ‘C’ post. It is well settled that, as per the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in State of Punjab and Others vs. Rafiq Masih (White Washer) reported in (2015) 4 SCC 334, recovery from employees belonging to Class III and Class IV service (or Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ service) is impermissible in law. The said ratio is squarely applicable to the petitioner’s case. The respondents have already refixed the pay of the petitioner, and the petitioner has no grievance with regard to such re-fixation. The petitioner only seeks cancellation of the recovery amount.

6. In view of the above, the impugned order is quashed in respect of recovery alone. If any amount has been recovered pursuant to the impugned proceedings, the same shall be refunded to the petitioner.

7. With the above observations, this Writ Petition is allowed.

There shall be no order as to costs. Consequently connected miscellaneous petition is closed.