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Judgment
Arindam Sinha, J
Mr. Mohanty, learned advocate appears on behalf of petitioner. He submits, the bank deducted Rs. 3,300/- from monthly pension of his client, commencing August, 2020. Husband of his client worked under opposite party no.1. There is no basis for this deduction. Hence, the writ petition with prayer for declaring the deduction illegal, for disbursement of full sanctioned pension and refund of deductions already made.
Pleadings are complete. Ms. Pattnaik, learned advocate, Additional Government Advocate appears on behalf of opposite party no.1 and draws attention to her client’s counter, in particular paragraph 6, reproduced below.
“6. That in reply to the averments made in paragraph-5 of the writ petition, it is humbly submitted that there was no information in the office of this opposite party no.1 from any authority as to deduction of family pension of the petitioner. The revision of family pension of the petitioner has not been done by the office of this opposite party no.1 at any point of time after death of the pensioner (retired Govt. employee), since revision of pension is done by the disbursing authority.”
Mr. Mishra, learned advocate appears on behalf of bank and draws attention to his client’s counter, wherein stands disclosed letter dated 4th March, 2020. Text of said letter is reproduced below.
“ In connection with above, it is observed that the captioned pensioner has been paid with excess pension amounting to Rs.242724/- (Rupees Two Lakh Forty Two Thousand Seven Hundred Twenty Four only) o/a of payment of wrong Basic (Enhance Basic 4324/- in stead of Normal 3500/- from July 2007 and 7th revision accordingly), resulting in an excess payment over a period of time from 01.07.2007 to 31.12.2019 as per the enclosed calculation sheet.
As the Govt. Departments are pressing for refund of the overpayment of pension in Lump sum (as per RBI instruction) all possible steps be taken to make a one-time recovery of said amount at the earliest and deposit in challan under Head of Account “0071-Pension and other retirement benefits” and send us a copy of the challan for our record.
However as the total amount of Rs.242724/- needs to be recovered from the Pensioner at the earliest, we shall be initiating the process of recovery at our end and the recovery shall be made from the Pensioner’s monthly pension @ Rs.3300/- per month w.e.f. 01.03.2020 which ends on 30.04.2026 i.e. till the total excess amount of is fully recovered.
In view of the urgent need to recover the excess payment we advise you to adopt suitable recovery measures as under:-
(a) The pensioner may be persuaded to avail pension loan to liquidate the overpayments where the overpayment is within her Pension loan eligibility.
(b) The right to setoff may be exercised in case where any other deposits i.e. other Savings Bank account/Current account/TDR/STDR is available in name of the pensioner.
Besides, as per Clause 70(A) of OCS(P) Rule – 1992 a part or the full outstanding over payment can be recovered/adjusted anytime from the pensioner’s arrear pension payable, if any at a later stage.
We request you to advise/inform the pensioner about the same and arrange accordingly.
Please treat this as MOST URGENT and advise us the steps taken at your end relating to the recovery of the amount in lump sum. ”
Mr. Mishra submits further, petitioner had given undertaking to refund or make good to the bank any amount, to which she is not entitled or any excess amount, which may be credited to her account. The undertaking is first disclosure in counter filed by opposite party no.3. Mr. Mohanty, points out that the undertaking is undated, carries statements in Hindi and English but signature obtained from his client in Oriya.
The only disclosed basis for deduction is above referred letter dated 4th March, 2020. It is a letter written by State Bank of India, Centralized Pension Processing Centre to Asst. General Manager/Chief Manager/Branch Manager, State Bank of India of concerned branch. On query from Court Mr. Mishra is unable to produce any document issued either by opposite party no.1 or the Treasury (opposite party no.6), informing commission of error in calculating the pension or excesses payout, authorizing the bank, being the disbursing authority, to recover.
The bank appears to have arrogated to itself power to recover some money from petitioner pensioner. It has gone to the extent advising its concerned branch to persuade petitioner to avail pension loan for liquidation of the alleged over payment. There is no basis disclosed in counters filed by opposite party nos.3 and 4, being addressor and addressee of said letter dated 4th March, 2020.
The writ petition is allowed. Opposite party nos.3 and 4, through opposite party no.4 will refund all deductions made from petitioner’s account. Current pension must also be credited to her account in full. The bank will also credit cost of Rs.10,000/- (rupees ten thousand) to petitioner’s account. All this must be done within two weeks from date. There is no relevance of the undertaking relied upon by the bank since, basis of deduction being mistake has not been demonstrated to Court.
The writ petition is disposed of.
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