Ranchi Bureau: The Jharkhand High Court has granted relief to Class III and IV employees of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University. The court has stayed the university’s order to recover excess salary from the employees.
The court has directed all employees to submit applications to the university regarding the order issued for the recovery of excess salary. The university has been instructed to reconsider these applications. With this order, the court disposed of the petition.
What was stated in the petition?
Manoj Kumar and 37 other employees had filed a petition in the High Court. The petition stated that the university had issued a letter to its Class III and IV employees regarding the return of excess salary paid to them.
The letter stated that the university had paid them excess salary under the Seventh Pay Commission, and therefore, they must return the additional salary. The petitioners argued that this order of the university was wrong and that no excess salary had been paid.
Decision to grant benefits under the Seventh Pay Commission
The court was informed that under notification number 18 dated January 18, 2017, of the Finance Department of the Jharkhand government, it was decided to grant benefits to all state employees under the recommendations of the Central Seventh Pay Commission from January 1, 2016.
Following this, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University issued a notification on January 25, 2023, deciding to grant the benefit of the Seventh Pay Commission to the employees from January 1, 2016. All the arrears of salary were provided by the university to the employees and teachers.
However, on June 25, 2024, the university suddenly issued a letter to recover around Rs. 16 lakh from the salaries of its Class III and IV employees. In July of this year, around Rs. 22,000 was also recovered from the employees’ salaries.
