Employees Must Repay Excess Benefits Accepted Under Undertaking

The Supreme Court has upheld recovery of excess academic-grade benefits from National Institute of Technology teachers who had accepted payment subject to written undertakings. Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu found no pleaded basis for restraining recovery on grounds of exceptional hardship, fraud-free receipt or entitlement as of right. The court said hardship must be established from the facts of the individual case; it cannot be presumed merely because repayment is burdensome. A later administrative instruction against recovering benefits already granted did not assist the appellants because their recovery had been completed two years before they approached the writ court. The appeals were dismissed on 23 September 2026, with each side bearing its own costs.