India, July 28 -- The Uttarakhand High Court has dismissed a petition by a retired government officer challenging the recovery of excess pension paid to him due to a Treasury Department's error, holding that he was not entitled to retain the excess amount.

A division bench of Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Subhash Upadhyay observed that although the excess payment resulted from an administrative lapse, the petitioner was aware that the commuted portion of his pension had not been deducted despite his having received the lump-sum commutation amount.

The petitioner, who retired as a Circle Officer in Tehri Garhwal on July 31, 2017, received a commutation amount of Rs 18.99 lakh in October that year.

As per the Pension Paymen...