IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.14802 of 2007 Date of Decision : October 05, 2010. Vijay Kumar .....Petitioner versus The Punjab State Electricity Board and another .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.A.K.Walia, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.P.S.Thiara, Advocate for respondent Nos.1 & 2. -.- 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? --- Surya Kant, J. (Oral) The petitioner seeks quashing of the order dated 31.7.2007 (Annexure P-7) whereby the benefit of first and second Time Bound Higher Pay Scales granted to him on completion of 9/16 years of service, has been withdrawn and consequential recovery is sought to be effected. During the course of hearing, learned counsel for the petitioner confines his claim qua the recovery only. I have heard learned counsel for the parties at some length and perused the records. The petitioner (since deceased) joined the respondent-Board as a Lower Division Clerk on 6.3.1979 and was later on promoted as C.W.P.No .14802 of 2007 2 Upper Division Clerk. Respondent Nos.1 & 2 have nowhere averred in their written statement that the petitioner ever mis-represented the facts or played any fraud or deceived the authorities for monetary gains. As a matter of fact, the respondents also granted the first and second Time Bound Higher Pay Scales to the petitioner, may be due to mis-interpretation or mis- construction of their own policy decision. That being so, no recovery can be effected from the petitioner as laid down by a Full Bench of this Court in Budh Ram and others versus State of Haryana and others, 2009 (3) S.C.T.333. Somewhat similar view has been taken by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in a recent decision in (2010) 1 SCC 440 (Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Haryana and others versus Israil Khan and others). For the reasons aforestated, the writ petition is allowed in part and the impugned order dated 31.3.2007 (Annexure P-7) to the extent of ordering recovery from the petitioner is hereby quashed. The recovery, if already effected, is ordered to be be released to the petitioner within a period of three months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order. Consequently, the service/terminal benefits to which the petitioner is found entitled to, shall also be released to him within the stipulated period. Dasti. October 05, 2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE