Recovery of excess payment made to Govt employees

By Haryananewswire

CHANDIGARH, FEB 7

Haryana Finance Department has issued instructions regarding recovery of excess payments made to government employees.

          In a circular issued to all Administrative Secretaries and Head of Departments, the Finance Department has asked them  to bring the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the cases of their departments which are still pending for adjudication before a civil court, district court, high court or Supreme Court of India.

          It is also decided that the matter, if any, with regard to recovery of excess amount is pending in their department, the same may be dealt in the light of observation of the Supreme Court of India that excess amount is tax payer money which neither belongs to officers who have effected over-payment nor to the recipients. Excess amount shall be recovered from recipients except in two categories of cases involving extreme hardships as mentioned in Col. B.J. Akkara case and Syed Abdul Qadir case. The cases on which decision has already been taken before date of Supreme Court judgment shall not be re-opened.

          It may be recalled that the issue of recovery of excess amount from government employee has been considered by Supreme Court of India while disposing of certain SLPs in C.No.30858/2011 (with I.A. Number 2 and 3) Chandi Prasad Uniyal and others Vs State of Uttrakhand and others. The Supreme Court considered the observations in six different cases. After considering all the facts and circumstances of the cases, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals with certain observations including one that except few instances pointed out in Syed Abdul Qadir case (supra) and in Col. B.J. Akkara (Retd) case (supra), the excess payment made due to wrong or irregular pay fixation can always be recovered.