Manipur: Landmark ruling by High Court prohibits recovery from retiral benefits

IMPHAL: The Manipur High Court, with Justice Ahanthem Bimol Singh presiding, made an important decision in the case of W Manileima Devi vs State of Manipur & Ors., WP(C) No. 532 of 2020.

The judge ruled that an employee in a Class-III position cannot have excess payments recovered from their retirement benefits. This decision sets a significant precedent in employment law.

The case was about W Manileima Devi, a former Substitute Assistant Graduate Teacher whose employment was extended over the years until she retired on October 31, 2019.

After retiring, there were issues with releasing her pension and other retirement benefits because of alleged mistakes in how her salary was calculated.

Even though the Office of the Accountant General pointed out mistakes in how Manileima Devi's salary was determined, no corrections were made.

This caused a long delay in giving her the benefits she was supposed to receive. As a result, Manileima Devi filed a legal petition asking for a solution.

During the court case, Manileima Devi argued that if there were any extra payments made to her, they happened more than 19 years ago and should not be taken from her retirement benefits.

On the other hand, the respondents argued that they should hold back her benefits until they fixed the salary calculation errors.

Based on this previous decision, the court decided that since Manileima Devi was in a Class-III position before retiring, they couldn't take back any excess payments from her retirement benefits.

As a result, the legal case was closed, establishing an important legal ruling for similar situations in the future.

In court, Mr. I. Denning represented Manileima Devi, the petitioner, while Th Vashum & S Jasobanta represented the respondents.

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