Mumbai: The Bombay high court has shot down an order of the education department to recover an amount of Rs 2,500 per month from a retired teacher’s pension since 1999. The amount was to be in lieu of excess salary paid to the teacher erroneously by the department from the time of her appointment in 1986. The court said that there was no need to disturb a stay on the recovery process by another bench 18 years ago, and she should get all the retirement benefits she was entitled to at the time of retirement.

A division bench of justices Anoop Mohta and M.S. Karnik was hearing a writ petition filed by Sulbha Sharad Vithalkar, who retired as a trained teacher in August 2000 and used to get paid on a scale of Rs 1,400 to Rs 2,600. However, months before retirement, in 1999, the education department issued a letter stating that she had been wrongly given a higher post in 1986.