-ly^y, ^ ^ 'BLE HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH JUDICATURE AT BILASPUR 2^-^G /2011 ^^•^^ ^^" V-"' «< wsa Loknath Patel s/o Shn Narayan Prasad Patel Aged about 61 years Occupation - Retired Assistant Grade II R/0 Shakuntala Sadan /Chhaya Chudi Centre, Main Road Dabhra Dist - Janjgir Champa (C.G.) VERSUS 1. State of Chhattisgarh Through, Secretary , Department of Irrigation Mantralaya, D.K.S. Bhawan, RaipurfC.G.) 2. Executive Engineer Minimata Bango Canal Division no.2 Cham.pa Dist -Janjgir -Champa (C.G.) ^^ ffilfiii? Uiilill, ^ 3. Accountant General Office of Accountant General Pandri Raipur Dist -Raipur (C. G.) ^" 4. Additional Director , Accounts and pension Bilaspur Dist -Bilaspur (C.G) ^5. Treasurer , Janjgir Cham.pa Dist Janjgir Champa UNDER ARTICLE 226/227^0F THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA •?! ^, 1 Ij v^, .,^0 HIGH COURT OF CHHATTiSGARH : BILASPUR WR!T PETITION (S) N0. 1670 OF 2011 PETITIONER RESPONDENTS Loknath Pate) Versus State of Chhattlsgarh & Oth Cs/Vrit Petition under Article 226/227 ofthe Constitution of India) Single Bench : Hon'ble Shri Satish K. Agnihotri, J. ^y' >. Deepali Pandey, Advocate Tor the petitioner. Shri Sushil Dubey, Government Advocate for the State. Shri R. Pradhan, Advocate forthe respondent No.3. ORDER fORAU (Passed on thte 1sl day of Apri!, 2011) Chaiienge in this petition is to the order dated 30.04.2010 (Annexure P/1) whereby, a sum of Rs. 13,190/- has been directed to be recovered from the retrial dues of the petitioner, hoiding it to be excess payment made to the petitioner during the course of his 2. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner, while working as Assistant Grade-11 in the Imgation Department, retired from serace on 30.04.2010, on attaining the age of superannuation. According to the petitioner, the impugned recovery 'nas been made without affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitloner, and Turther, the issue asto whether recovery of excess payment can be made without following priRcjples of natura! justice is no longer res integra, the same has been settled by the Supreme Court in the matter of Sahib Ram v. State ofHaryana and others, and further foiiowed by this Court in the matter of Vidyadhar Tmari v. The State of Chhattisgaii) & Other^ and Vidya Shankar T'mari v. State of M.P. (Now State of Chhattisgarh) and others and thereafter foliowed in severai decisions. 3. This C-ourt In Ramchsndra Kurup v. Stats of C.G. & Others" and other connected matters, observed as under : 11995Supp(1)SCC18 2 20Q5 (1) MPHT 105 (CG) 3 2006 (2) MPHT 31 (CG) 420,10(3)CGLJ400' ,. l-2:_;;.^Ti_r~"':":;rr: \ ^ .;•( z QA ry' "19. A common thread running into the above decisions of the Supreme Court is that, for recovery of excess payment of emo!uments/allowances, thers are three conditions wherein the excess payment may be recovered, namely (i) excess payment was made on account of misreprassntation or fraud on ths part of the emp?oyee, (ii) the employee had knowledge that the payment received was in excess, and (iii) the error was corrected within a short span of time of wrong payment......" Learned counsei appearing for the State/respondents does not controvert the submissions made by learned counse! for the petitioner and submits that this matter may be disposed of in the same terms. !n view ofthe foregoing and as admitted by iearned counse! appearing for the parties, this petition is disposed of in the terms of the order passed sn the case of Ramchandra Kurup . i.e. the impugned order dated 30.04.2010 (Annexure P/1) regarding recovery ofan amount of Rs. 13.190/- from the retrial dues of the petitioner on account excess payment, is hereby quashed. The petitioner is entitled to fu! pensionary benefits/gratuity amount without any deduction. If the amount has been recovered, the petitioner is entitted to thesaid amount. However, it is open to the respondents to take recourse to the provisions ofthe Chhattisgarh Civit Services (Pension) Rules, 1976, if so advised, in accordance with !aw, after foliowing basic princip!es of natura! justice. 01- SatishK. AgBihotri ashok