‘Retrenched pension deductions illegal, BESCOM to refund ₹2.8 lakh’

CH NEWS, BENGALURU In a landmark ruling safeguarding employee rights, the Karnataka High Court has declared it entirely illegal for public utilities to deduct or recover money from an employee’s pension and retirement benefits on the grounds of erroneous excess salary payments made during their service. Presiding over a single-judge bench, Justice M. Nagaprasanna directed the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) to refund a withheld sum of Rs. 2,81,887, accompanied by 6% annual interest, to a retired Junior Engineer within eight weeks. The legal challenge was brought forward by Manjunath, a resident of Doddamavalli, Basavanagudi, who dedicated decades of service to BESCOM. Beginning his career as an Assistant Lineman on November 1, 1987, Manjunath progressed to become a Lineman in 1991 and ultimately retired from his position as a Junior Engineer (Electrical) attached to the Rajajinagar C-1 subdivision. However, as he reached the threshold of superannuation, the Executive Engineer of BESCOM's Malleshwaram Division issued an administrative order on January 21, 2022. The directive claimed that an inadvertent overpayment—stemming from a historical salary revision or increment calculation error—had occurred approximately 15 years prior. Consequently, the utility withheld Rs. 2,81,887 directly from his retirement and pension benefits. Challenging the unilateral deduction, Manjunath's legal counsel argued before the High Court that the alleged overpayment was never the result of any fraud, misrepresentation, or administrative deceit by the employee. Citing established jurisprudence, the petitioner demonstrated that recovering funds from retiring personnel due to historical clerical errors by management directly contradicts binding Supreme Court directives. Handing down the judgment, Justice Nagaprasanna reiterated settled legal principles established by the apex court, noting that no monetary recovery is permissible from Group C and D employees, retired personnel, those with less than a year of service remaining, or in cases where payments were made more than five years prior, provided the employee bore no fault or fraudulent intent. The bench strongly observed that attempting to recover excess disbursements—caused entirely by administrative misinterpretation or calculation mistakes rather than employee misconduct—at the fragile juncture of retirement inflicts severe financial injustice and psychological hardship. Because BESCOM failed to present any evidence of fraud or misrepresentation by Manjunath, the court struck down the recovery as legally invalid and ordered the immediate restitution of the deducted funds with interest.