13 14.07. 2026 Ct. No. 18 Ab IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION APPELLATE SIDE WPA 15345 of 2026 Malay Mahapatra Vs. The State of West Bengal and others. --------------- Mr. Sankha Ghosh, Mr. Biswarup Nandy. … for the petitioner. Ms. Aparna Banerjee, Ld. AGP. … for the State. Mr. Sourav Mondal. … for the respondent no. 5. 1. The affidavit of service filed today is taken on record. 2. The petitioner is aggrieved that a sum of Rs. 1,61,209/- has been appropriated from his retiral benefits and pension dues by the authorities, on account of overdrawal, for which the petitioner is in no manner responsible. 3. The petitioner retired on November 30, 2025 and was issued a Pension Payment Order (PPO) on November 11, 2025. It was from this PPO dated November 11, 2025 and the Gratuity Payment Order (GPO) dated November 28, 2025 that the petitioner came to learn that a sum of Rs. 1,61,209/- has been deducted from his gratuity amount on account of alleged withdrawal. 4. This issue has been decided conclusively by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of State 2 of Punjab vs. Rafiq Masih, reported in (2015) 4 SCC 334. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has held in no uncertain terms that recovery cannot be made at a subsequent stage, if the incumbent is not at fault. 5. It is not in doubt in the present case that the petitioner had made no misrepresentation at the time of fixing of his pay, during his service tenure. The petitioner has duly discharged his duties and has enjoyed the pay scale as permitted by the respondent authorities, without any interruption during his entire tenure. Thus, on the basis of an erroneous calculation made by the authorities, the alleged overdrawn amount cannot be appropriated from the pensionary benefits of the petitioner including the gratuity amount. 6. In view of the afore-stated, I direct the respondent no. 4 to issue the requisite direction to the respondent no. 5 to release the sum of Rs.1,61,209/- in favour of the petitioner. The respondent no. 4 will issue such direction by July 31, 2026 and the respondent no. 5 will act on the same and immediately disburse the amount by August 14, 2026 in favour of the petitioner. 7. With the afore-stated directions, the writ petition is disposed of. 8. There shall, however, be no order as to costs. 3 9. Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties on priority basis. (Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.)