CAN’T RECOVER EXCESS
SALARY PAID TO
CLASS III, IV STAFF
………SUPREME COURT
Recovery of excess amount paid to
Class-III and Class-IV employees due to employer's mistake is not permissible
in law, the Supreme Court has ruled saying that it would cause extremely harsh
consequences to them who are totally dependent on their wages to run their
family.
The apex court said employees of
lower rung service spend their entire earning in the upkeep and welfare of
their family, and if such excess payment is allowed to be recovered from them,
it would cause them far more hardship, than the reciprocal gains to the
employer.
A bench of JS Khehar and Arun
Mishra also directed that an employer cannot recover excess amount in case of a
retired employee or one who is to retire within one year and where recovery
process is initiated five years after excess payment.
"We are
therefore satisfied in concluding, that such recovery from employees belonging
to the lower rungs (i.e., Class-III and Class-IV - sometimes denoted as Group
'C' and Group 'D') of service, should not be subjected to the ordeal of any
recovery, even though they were beneficiaries of receiving higher emoluments,
than were due to them. Such recovery would be iniquitous and arbitrary and
therefore would also breach the mandate contained in Article 14 of the
Constitution," Justice Khehar, who wrote the judgment said.
It said that the employer's right
to recover has to compared, with the effect of the recovery on the concerned
employee and if the effect of the recovery from the employee would be, more
unfair, more wrongful, more improper, and more unwarranted, than the
corresponding right of the employer, which would then make it iniquitous and
arbitrary, to effect the recovery.
"In such a situation, the employee's
right would outbalance, and therefore eclipse, the right of the employer to
recover," the
bench said.
The bench passed the order on a
petition filed by Punjab government challenging Punjab and Haryana high court
order restraining it to recover the excess amount paid by mistake to numerous
employees over the years.
The direction was given in the
Civil Appeal No. 11527 and other similar appeals of 2014 aroused out of SLP (
C) No 11684 of 2012 - State of Punjab
and others Vs Rafiq Masih and others.
It said we may, as a ready reference, summarize the
following few situations, wherein recoveries by the employers, would be
impermissible in law:
(i)
Recovery from employees belonging to Class-III and Class-IV
service (or Group 'C' and Group 'D' service).
(ii)
Recovery from retired employees, or employees who are due
to retire within one year, of the order of recovery.
(iii)
Recovery from employees, when the excess payment has been made
for a period in excess of five years, before the order of recovery is issued.
(iv)
Recovery in cases where an employee has wrongfully been
required to discharge duties of a higher post, and has been paid accordingly,
even though he should have rightfully been required to work against an inferior
post.
(v)
In any other case, where the Court arrives at the conclusion,
that recovery if made from the employee, would be iniquitous or harsh or
arbitrary to such an extent, as would far outweigh the equitable balance of the
employer's right to recover.
The court said a government
employee is primarily dependent on his wages, and such deduction from salary
should not be allowed which would make it difficult for the employee to provide
for the needs of his family and any recovery must be done within five years.
In this case, the employees were
given monetary benefits in excess of their entitlement due to a mistake
committed by a concerned competent authority, in determining the emoluments payable to them.
