A Division Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court upheld the Tribunal’s restraint against recovering wrongly paid amounts from the employees, including its direction to refund sums already recovered.
Judge / Bench — Justices Sanjeev Kumar and M.A. Chowdhary
The UT’s argument that recipients were legally and morally bound to return an erroneous payment did not displace the governing protection against recovery, particularly for Class III and IV employees and retired employees, absent fraud or misrepresentation. At the same time, the department retained the right to correct its mistake and re-fix pay or pension by excluding the benefit wrongly extended. Counsel should distinguish recovery of past payments from lawful correction of the continuing pay or pension calculation; protection against the former does not perpetuate an erroneous entitlement.
Case — UT of J&K and others v. Maneer Hussain and others · WP(C) 3203/2026 · 7 October 2026 · Jammu wing
Advocates appearing — Petitioners/UT — Ms. Priyanka Bhat, Assisting counsel to Mrs. Monika Kohli, Sr. AAG. Respondents — Mr. Sheikh Najeeb, Advocate.