1 Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC-LKO:16280-DB Court No. - 1 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 990 of 2022 Petitioner :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Agriculture Dept. Govt. Of U.P. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Shyam Raj And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- C.S.C. Counsel for Respondent :- Umesh Pratap Singh,Shikhar Anand Hon'ble Attau Rahman Masoodi,J. Hon'ble Rajeev Singh,J. (1) Heard Shri Prafulla Yadav, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel appearing for the petitioner-State. (2) The present writ petition is directed against the judgment and order dated 30.07.2021 passed by the State Public Services Tribunal, Lucknow in Claim Petition No.1854 of 2019 whereby the claim petition filed by the respondent no.1-employee arising out of deduction of a sum of Rs.3,67,007/- was allowed and a direction for its refund was accordingly issued. (3) Briefly stated the facts of the case are that at the verge of retirement in the year 2019, the impugned order dated 31.07.2018 has been passed whereby the promotional pay scale of Rs.8000-13500 granted to the respondent No.1 with effect from 01.04.2001 was taken away and the benefit of Rs.10000- 15200 granted to him with effect from 06.10.2005 was also taken away, when certain discrepancies were noticed in matter of pay fixation. On rectifying the anomaly, the cumulative recovery of a sum of Rs.3,67,007/- was ordered and the same was sought to be made from the amount of gratuity payable to the respondent no.1-employee. Orders to this effect were passed by the competent authority as have been set aside by the Tribunal through the impugned judgment. 2 (4) It is the recovery of Rs.3,67,007/- by means of the respective orders which came to be challenged before the Tribunal along with the cancellation of previous fixation orders. Learned Tribunal placing reliance upon the Government Order dated 16.01.2007 which has been re-produced in the impugned judgment proceeded in the matter and it was opined that rectification of such an anomaly in the matter of fixation of pay could not be resorted to by the competent authority having a bearing upon the right of pension, particularly when the benefit of fixation of pay was already granted to the respondent no.1- employee way back in the year 2001. (5) The Tribunal having regard to the rival contentions of the parties finally allowed the claim petition and recovery of an amount Rs.3,67,007/- which was sought to be deducted from gratuity payable to respondent no.1-employee was set aside and a direction was issued for refund of the same to the respondent no.1-employee within three months. (6) We do not gather any misrepresentation on the part of the respondent no.1-employee in the matter of pay fixation as was ordered in the year 2001, nor there is any such allegation to this effect. The Government Order dated 16.01.2017 insofar as the fixation of pension is concerned, does not permit the competent authority to visit the records related to pay fixation prior to maximum of 34 months prior to retirement date of a government servant, therefore, having regard to the mandate of Government Order in the present case, the benefit already granted to the respondent no.1-employee could not be unsettled by the departmental authority. Therefore, keeping in view the aforesaid government order, the Tribunal has rightly set aside the impugned action and the consequences arising therefrom. (7) As noticed above, the respondent no.1-employee has already retired from service on 31.07.2019, as such, the decision in the 3 light of the Government Order keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case does not suffer from any illegality calling for any interference in exercise of supervisory jurisdiction of this Court under article 227 of the Constitution of India. (8) The writ petition bereft of any merit deserves rejection. It is accordingly dismissed. . [Rajeev Singh, J.] [Attau Rahman Masoodi, J.] Order Date :- 20.3.2025 akhilesh/- Digitally signed by :- AKHILESHWAR KUMAR High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench