No Recovery Of Family Pension Paid In Excess To The Widow, Says Madras HC

A family pension is part of the social security policy for government employees, where after an employee's death, a family pension is paid to the family members. However, if a beneficiary of a family pension is informed about the recovery of an amount paid in excess, can the recovery be enforced? In a case concerning pension recovery, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court ruled against the authorities' decision to recover the excess pension paid to the widow of a government employee.

In this case, A Pavunammal, wife of Aandappan (deceased pensioner), was informed that she had been paid an extra amount (Rs 2.94 lakh) in her family pension, which needs to be recovered. Notably, it was not a one-time payment, but the monthly pension was paid in excess from 2017 to 2022.

Family Pension Paid In Excess:

The court noted that the widow's husband worked as a village headman, who worked for 23 years from 1957 to 1980. After retirement, he started receiving a pension until he died in 2017. After him, his wife started receiving a family pension from the next year. The family pension was fixed at Rs 6,750, and Pavunammal has been receiving this pension until July 2022.

In August 2022, she did not receive the pension. Instead, she received a communication from the authorities about excess pension recovery. As per the communication, the excess amount will be recovered in monthly installments from her pension. Since then, she has not been paid the family pension. 

While the authorities argued that they had informed and taken consent from Pavunammal, the court noted that she was not given any show cause notice to respond to the recovery order. The court also referred to the situations summarised by the Supreme Court where recovery is impermissible under the law, such as when excess payment has been made for five years.

No Fraud Or Misrepresentation:

It also observed no misrepresentation or fraud by the family pensioners or her deceased husband. The court said that until the excess payment is proved to be due to misrepresentation or fraud by the retired employee or the family pensioner, recovery is not permitted.

The Court Order:

The court took note that the family pensioner is the sole breadwinner for her family and that she is not at fault for receiving an excess pension. Recovering this at this stage would be unjust. The court ordered the authorities to pay her family pension arrears starting from August 2022, when the pension was stopped. It directed to pay this amount within six weeks and quashed the recovery order, providing relief to the family pensioner.