IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.16692 of 1990 (O&M) Date of decision:20.05.2011 Bachittar Singh and others ....Petitioners versus Punjab Mandi Board, Sector 17, Chandigarh and another ...Respondents II. Civil Writ Petition No.5970 of 1991 (O&M) Kewal Krishan Kumar and others ....Petitioners versus State of Punjab and others ...Respondents III. Civil Writ Petition No.10313 of 1991 (O&M) Lakhwinder Singh and others ....Petitioners versus State of Punjab and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr. Dharam Vir Sharma, Senior Advocate, with Ms. Mamta Rani, Advocate for the petitioners in CWP Nos.16692 of 1990 and 5970 of 1991. Ms.Alka Chatrath, Advocate, for the petitioners in CWP No.10313 of 1991. Mr. K.S.Sivia, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab. Mr. Rajiv Joshi, Advocate, for respondent No.3 in CWP No.10313 of 1991. Mr. I.S. Sidhu, Advocate, for the respondents in CWP No.16692 of 1990. ---- Civil Writ Petition No.16692 of 1990 (O&M) - 2 - 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? No. 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? No. 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? No. ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. All the petitioners in these writ petitions seek for a direction to the respondents to pay the house rent allowance drawn by them as of 30.08.1988 on the ground that the allowances already availed by them were protected and any payment made already before its subsequent reduction was liable for adjustment in the scales sanctioned w.e.f. 01.09.1988. I do not feel compelled to go into the merits for two reasons: (i) there shall be no recovery possible unless the payment in alleged excess was consequent upon any fraud or misrepresentation. There is no such suggestion made and in terms of the law laid down by the Full Bench in Budh Ram and others Versus State of Haryana and others-2009(3) PLR 511 and (ii) the Government itself has given a clarification through a notification dated 06.02.2008 where it stated that any employee, who is still drawing house rent allowance including house rent allowance in lieu of rent free accommodation over and above the rates as per his entitlement in lieu of rent free accommodation should be paid the house rent allowance as per his entitlement after affording to him an opportunity of hearing. 2. Such of those petitioners, who have already retired, would not be subject to any recoveries and such of those persons, who still are continuing shall be afforded an opportunity as contemplated in the notification dated 06.02.2008. The writ petitions are disposed of in the Civil Writ Petition No.16692 of 1990 (O&M) - 3 - light of the directions of the Government dated 06.02.2008 vide No.1/21/2005-2FP-1/1073 of Government of Punjab, Department of Finance. If any recovery has already been made till interim orders were obtained from this Court in any of the writ petitions, the said amount shall be paid back by the Market Committee to the petitioners within 8 weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of the order. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 20.05.2011 sanjeev