Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 30: High Court held that once the pay fixation of an employee is made by the Government then the same cannot be reduced on the fag end of the services of such employee and no recoveries of upgraded pay is permissible under law.
The case of the employee-Jamsheed Ahmad Khan who was initially working as Gauge Reader in Irrigation and Flood Control Department was given upgraded pay scale in terms of SRO 59 of 1990 with and was lately in the year 2006 accorded the said up-gradation of pay on account of procedural delays of the department, with retrospective effect.
The said SRO 59 subsequently came to be amended in terms of SRO 393 dated 27.11.1997 where-under by way of which certain common categories of posts of Public Works and Engineering Department were placed in the prescribed pay scale with effect from 1989 i.e. the date of issuance of SRO 59 including the post of Gauge Reader and Gauge Operator bringing the same under the purview of the said SRO 59.
The petitioner after rendering his service satisfactorily in the department after having been extended the benefits of the SRO 59 by the respondent department retired on superannuation from service on 31.01.2024 in the higher pay band of Rs. 35400- 112600.
The Assistant Accountant Officer, (Pay Verification Cell) Principal Accountant General A & E J&K Srinagar however at the back of the petitioner-Khan recalled his service book and recorded the petitioner in the lower pay band after withdrawing the benefits of SRO 59 while issuing communication no. PVC/S-2/2023/24/PC-74/1765 dated nil besides directing recovery on this court of the excess pay drawn by him against which the petitioner-Khan knocked the doors of court.
The Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani after a brief discussion and arguments advanced by the counsel for the parties said the action of the authorities is non est in the eyes of law and directed the authorities to restore the existing pay band at the time of retirement of the petitioner-employee.
The DB after having regard to the facts and circumstances inasmuch as the issues involved in the case said there is reason to take a different view in the instant petition of aggrieved employee-Khan as such the petition succeeds as a consequence whereof the respondents are commanded to restore the pay band of the petitioner-Khan of Rs.5200-20200, GP 2800 with basic pay of Rs.62,400/- as on 01.07.2021.
Court also directed for calculating and releasing all retiral benefits in favour of the petitioner-Khan thereto including the pension, gratuity, leave salary and all other post-retiral benefits which he, the court said, would be entitled to.
Court has also directed the authorities to refrain and forbear from effecting any recoveries from the petitioner pursuant to the impugned communication issued by the Assistant Accountant Officer, (Pay Verification Cell) Principal Accountant General A & E J&K Srinagar.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
