Chhattisgarh High Court: excess pay can be recovered from retired employee absent proven hardship

The Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a writ petition by Umesh Pathak, a retired Accountant Grade-I in the State's Higher Education Department, challenging a fresh order recovering Rs.1,56,865 paid to him in excess because of an erroneous pay fixation. An earlier recovery order of 2020 had been set aside by the same Court in 2026 only for want of a hearing, with a direction to the department to decide the matter afresh after giving the petitioner notice — not a bar on recovery itself. After a hearing, the department again ordered recovery, which the petitioner challenged a second time, citing the Supreme Court's ruling in State of Punjab v. Rafiq Masih (White Washer) that recovery of wrongly paid amounts from certain classes of employees should not ordinarily be made.

Justice Bibhu Datta Guru held that excess payment of public money — 'taxpayers' money', belonging neither to the paying officer nor the recipient — can always be recovered barring exceptional hardship, which is not a matter of right and must be specifically pleaded and proved, following the Supreme Court's recent decision in Dr. M.K. Ravi Varma v. National Institute of Technology (2026 SCC OnLine SC 2210). Since Pathak had placed no material on his finances or hardship before the Court, and the setting aside of the earlier order had not conferred any unconditional right to retain the excess amount, the fresh recovery order was upheld and the petition dismissed.