38 22.09. 2026 Ct. No. 18 Ab IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION APPELLATE SIDE WPA 26385 of 2026 Dipak Kumar Mondal Vs. The State of West Bengal and others. --------------- Mr. Sankha Ghosh, Mr. Biswarup Nandy. … for the petitioner. Mr. Piush Chaturvedi, Mr. Tarun Kumar Das. … for the State. 1. The affidavit of service filed today is taken on record. 2. The petitioner is aggrieved that a sum of Rs. 2,42,513/- 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 January 31, 2026 and was issued a Pension Payment Order (PPO) on April 16, 2026. It was from this PPO that the petitioner came to learn that a sum of Rs. 2,42,513/- has been deducted from his gratuity amount on account of alleged overpayment. 4. This issue has been decided conclusively by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of State 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 2 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, the appropriation effected by the authorities of the afore-stated sum of Rs. 2,42,513/- pursuant to the notice of March 25, 2026 is accordingly set aside. 7. 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.2,42,513/- in favour of the petitioner. The respondent no. 4 will issue such direction by October 31, 2026 and the respondent no. 5 will act on the same and immediately disburse the amount by November 15, 2026 in favour of the petitioner. 8. With the afore-stated directions, the writ petition is disposed of. 3 9. There shall, however, be no order as to costs. 10. Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties on priority basis. (Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.)