The courts had issued various judgment for excess wrongful payments made by the offices as it was causing hardships to the Pensioner who was not responsible for the error and the recovery being wrong/huge he cannot afford to pay. In the background of the DOP&T had issued OM 06.02.2014. Again on 03.02.2016, DOP&T had issued OM citing Apex Court judgment.
Citing the said orders, we were perusing the cases of “A Request to Release illegal stopped payment of Medical Reimbursement Bill from January 2014 against alleged recovery of SDA – Cases of Retired Executive Officers of J & K Circle.” Vide our letter dated 29.06.2015 forwarding the Representations of
(i) Shri M.K. Bhan. Retired AGM (NWP-CM)
(ii) Shri V.K. Revoo. Retired DE (Transmission)
(iii) Shri Umesh Bhat, Retired SDE (PLG)
(iv) Shri S.K. Raina, Retired SDE (Transmission),
(v) Shri Ved Pramukh, Retired SDE (Transmission),
(vi) Shri S.K.Koul, Retired GM (FIN/IFA),
(vii) Shri A.K. Saraf. Retired DGM (CFA/Plg).
Upon the issuance of issuance of said DOP&T order, we issued reminder dated 08.03.2016 to Shri Rakesh Srivastava CMD BSNL New Delhi endorsing its copy to (1) Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad MOC and (2) Shri Jitendra Prasad, MOS requesting to intervene.
In the said letter we had mentioned that:
- “The first Para reads …
” The undersigned is directed to refer to this Department’s OM No.18/26/2011-Estt (Pay-I) dated 6th February, 2014 wherein certain instructions have been issued to deal with the issue of recovery of wrongful / excess payments made to Government servants in view of the law declared by Courts, particularly, in the case of Chandi Prasad Uniyal And Ors. vs. State of Uttarakhand And ors., 2012 AIR SCW 4 742, (2012) 8 SCC 417. Para 3(iv) of the OM inter-alia provides that recovery should be made in all cases of overpayment barring few exceptions of extreme hardships.”
The last para reads..
” 5. The matter has, consequently, been examined in consultation with the Department of Expenditure and the Department of Legal Affairs. The Ministries / Departments are advised to deal with the issue of wrongful / excess payments made to Government servants in accordance with above decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in CA No.11527 of 2014 (arising out of SLP (C) No.11684 of 2012) in State of Punjab and others etc vs Rafiq Masih (White Washer) etc. However, wherever the waiver of recovery in the above-mentioned situations is considered, the same may be allowed with the express approval of Department of Expenditure in terms of this Department’s OM No.18/26/2011-Estt (Pay-I) dated 6th February, 2014. “
- Further, no rule permits to deny the medical facility to Pensioners which is bad in term of law and un-human act. By reverting to this action, the officers have taken a law in to their hand which is to be condemned by one and all and deserve punishment for wrongful use of authorities given to them. We have been informed that the CGM J&K has sought for your opinion in the matter.
Now, the BSNL Corporate Office has issued orders No: 1-06/2016-PAT(BSNL) dated 09.09.2016 on the subject “ Guidelines regarding recovery of excess/wrongful payments made to employees of BSNL” providing detailed instructions for dealing with such cases.
The Para 3 of said letter reads:
- In view of the above instruction of DoT in the matter, it is requested that wherever waiver of recovery is considered necessary in the light of the decision of Hon’ble Supreme Court, the proposal may be sent to DoT through the concerned cadre controlling branch I BSNL Corporate Office giving full justification and expenditure involved along with recommendation of HOC and IFA.”
CLICK FOR ORDER : 12-09-2016-wrongful-recovery-bsnl-orders
