JAMMU, March 6 -- In a major service law ruling with far-reaching consequences for government employees, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has held that while the administration can lawfully re-fix the pay and pension of employees who were wrongly granted overlapping benefits under two separate SROs, it cannot recover the excess amount already paid to them. The judgment is significant as it draws a clear legal line between correction of a financial mistake by the State and punitive recovery from employees who were not at fault.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal delivered the verdict in a batch of petitions led by UT of J&K and others vs. Maqbool Sheikh and connected matters. The Court ruled...