HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT JAMMU WP (C) No. 2035/2025 Mohd. Farooq and Ors. .....Applicant(s)/Petitioner(s) Through :- Mr. Sheikh Najeeb, Advocate v/s UT of J & K and Ors. .....Respondent(s) Through :- Ms. Monika Thakur, Advocate CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV KUMAR, JUDGE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY PARIHAR, JUDGE ORDER 09.03.2026 1. Impugned in this petition, filed by the petitioners, is an order and judgment dated 28.04.2021 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal Jammu Bench, Jammu [“the Tribunal”] in TA No. 1580/2020, whereby the Tribunal has partially allowed the TA/petition of the petitioners by directing as under. i. That the respondents shall be entitled to re-fix the pay structure of the applicant by denying the benefit of higher scale of pay. ii. Respondents shall, however, not recover the amount already paid. iii. That in case the amount, if any, on account of giving benefit of higher pay scale has been recovered from the applicants/petitioners, the same shall be refunded without interest. 2. Having heard learned counsel for the petitioners and perused the material on record, we are of the considered opinion that the issue Sr. No. 13 2 raised by the petitioners in this petition has been set at rest by a Division Bench judgment of this Court in case titled “Sita Ram and Others vs. UT of J & K and Others” as also a recent judgment passed by a Coordinate Bench of this Court in case titled “UT of J & K and Others vs. Maqbool Sheikh”. 3. It is, therefore, now a trite law that an employee cannot be permitted to take the benefit of an error and claim the post-retiral benefits on the basis of wrong fixation of his pay at one stage.. 4. Having regard to the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of “State of Punjab and Ors. vs. Rafiq Masih”, (2015)4 SCC 334 and “Thomas Daniel vs. State of Kerala” 2022 SCC OnLine SC 536, the recovery already received by Class „C‟ and „D‟ employees even erroneously cannot be recovered. 5. This is the principle which has been followed by the Tribunal while disposing of the matter. 6. For the foregoing reasons, we find no merit in this petition and the same is, accordingly, dismissed. (Sanjay Parihar) (Sanjeev Kumar) Judge Judge JAMMU 09.03.2026 Manik