Govt of India issues guidelines on recovery of excess amount from employee

Indian Military Veterans

The issue of recovery of excess amount from pensioners and employees has remained quite vexed since the past many years. The problem was compounded with the Supreme Court taking a varied view in various decisions.

Going into great detail of the subject, the Supreme Court in December 2014 however laid down the law quite clearly inStateof Punjab Vs Rafiq Masih wherein certain guidelines were postulated for such cases.

To the credit of the Central Government, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has today issued a universal circular implementing the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the ibid case.

The circular is significant since it is probably for the first time that a department has floated a universally applicable pro-employee circular in this regard. Though departments are quick in circulating decisions of High Courts and Supreme Court rendered against employees, it is rarely that a similar exercise is conducted when law is laid down in favour of employees or retirees.

The said Office Memorandum issued today, detailing the cases where recovery is impermissible, can be accessed and downloaded by clicking here.