U'khand HC upholds recovery of excess pension paid due to official error

The Uttarakhand High Court has dismissed a petition by a retired government officer challenging the recovery of excess pension paid to him due to a Treasury Department's error, holding that he was not entitled to retain the excess amount.

A division bench of Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Subhash Upadhyay observed that although the excess payment resulted from an administrative lapse, the petitioner was aware that the commuted portion of his pension had not been deducted despite his having received the lump-sum commutation amount.

The petitioner, who retired as a Circle Officer in Tehri Garhwal on July 31, 2017, received a commutation amount of Rs 18.99 lakh in October that year.

As per the Pension Payment Order (PPO), Rs 19,320 was to be deducted from his monthly pension from November 2017 towards the commuted portion. However, due to a Treasury Department error, the deduction was not made for nearly eight years, and he continued to receive a full pension.

The lapse came to light during an audit, following which the department initiated recovery of the excess amount.

Counsel for the petitioner argued that the excess payment was caused entirely by the department's mistake and that recovery of Rs 20,000 a month, in addition to the regular commutation deduction, was causing financial hardship.

The state government submitted that even after the recovery, the petitioner was receiving a monthly pension of Rs 37,310 and no interest was being charged on the recoverable amount.

Dismissing the petition, the court held that the petitioner had no right to retain the excess pension paid due to the administrative error, particularly after having received the lump-sum commutation amount.

The bench also upheld the recovery at the existing rate, observing that it would still take several years to recover the outstanding amount.