Anandrao v. The State of Maharashtra

Mr.Chintamani K. Bhangoji for the Petitioner. Mr.P.P.Kakade, Addl.GP with Mr.V.G.Badgujar, AGP for Respondent Nos. 1 and 2, State. Mr.Ajit Pitale with Mr.Siddharth Pitale for Respondent Nos. 3 to 7. --- CORAM : RAVINDRA V. GHUGE & ASHWIN D. BHOBE, JJ. DATE : 09TH APRIL, 2025 ORAL JUDGMENT (Per : Ravindra V. Ghuge, J.)

Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard finally with the consent of the parties.

The Petitioner has put forth prayer clauses (B), (C) and (D), as under :

B) This Hon’ble court By issuing writ of certiorari or any appropriate writ, order or direction in like nature, impugned Communication dt. 14/10/2021 issued by the 2 of 6 Trupti 910-wp-2623-2025.odt Res. No. 4 and consequential impugned decision dated 06/12/2021 taken by the Res. No. 5 thereby directing to recover amount of Rs. 2,86,757/- from gratuity of the petitioner may kindly be quash and set aside. C) This Hon’ble court By issuing writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction in like nature the respondent No. 4 and 5 may kindly be directed to refund recovered amount of Rs. 2,86,757/- with 9% interest to the petitioner and pay all the consequential retirement benefit by adding benefit of additional increment to the petitioner. D) Pending hearing and final disposal of this writ petition the Res. No 4 and 5 may be directed to refund recovered amount of Rs. 2,86,757/- with 9% interest to the petitioner and pay all the retirement benefit by adding benefit of additional increment to the petitioner

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The Petitioner was a Class -III employee having been appointed on the post of Clerk on 11th September, 1984 by Respondent No.6. A Government Resolution dated 14th December, 2006 was introduced and the guidelines were framed for granting additional/ advance increments to those employees who are certified as having performed excellent work. On 20th July, 2007, the Petitioner was declared to have performed excellent work by an order and was granted two additional increments with effect from 1st October, 2006. The Petitioner superannuated on 31st May, 2021. 3 of 6 Trupti 910-wp-2623-2025.odt

On 14th October, 2021, Respondent No.4 raised a query as regards the grant of additional increment to the Petitioner and directed Respondent No. 5 to carry out a re-fixation of the pay scale with effect from 1st October, 2006. In the said process, the purported excess amount paid to the Petitioner was recovered from the gratuity amount vide the decision dated 6th December, 2021. Hence, an amount of Rs. 2,86,757/- was recovered from the gratuity payment.

The Petitioner places reliance upon the judgments delivered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Syed Abdul Qadir vs. State of Bihar and others.1 and State of Punjab and others vs. Rafiq Masih (White Washer) etc.,2.

The learned Advocate representing Respondent Nos. 3 to 7, has received a communication addressed by Ms. Ratnamala Patil, Deputy Chief Auditor, dated 8th April, 2025, addressed to the Law and Labour Officer of the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran. A photostat copy of the compilation of three pages is placed on record, which is marked as ‘X’ for identification. It is informed that the