No HC relief for retd officer who drew HRA for 30 years

The Bombay High Court has declined to stay an order of recovery of Rs 3.09 lakhs from the pension of a retired government employee, who had drawn house rent allowance in his salary for 30 years despite having an official accommodation during the same period.

Dattatraya Yadav, a Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO) in Pay and Accounts Department of the state government, had drawn from 1975 to 2005, a period of 30 years, house rent allowance, despite full knowledge that he was not entitled to receive the same because he had been allotted a government accommodation since 1975. An order was passed for recovery of the amount through a monthly deduction of Rs 10,000 from his pension, when it became known to authorities after he retired from service. The aggrieved officer then moved Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal, seeking to restrain the recovery of HRA amount.

The MAT, on November 14, 2014, confirmed the order about recovery of the amount following which Yadav knocked the doors of the high court. It was also the petitioner's case that an amount of Rs 43,065 has already been recovered from him and, therefore, he is entitled to refund of the amount from the government.