CHANDIGARH: Punjab and Haryana high court has made it clear that an undertaking given by a pensioner does not create an absolute right in favour of a bank to recover any amount assessed and paid by them.
HC said that in such cases the bank, in view of the undertaking, can recover money if, by mistake, some wrong entries have been made in the account.
However, it added: “The undertaking cannot be read in a way that for all times if a bank makes an incorrect assessment of pension for quite a long time in the account of a pensioner, it would have the right to recover (sic). It is not the case that the pension was assessed by the petitioner or she had submitted papers disclosing an incorrect figure,” HC held in an order released on Tuesday.
HC held that activities relating to determination of pension were carried out by the bank, which cannot take advantage of an undertaking filed 16 years ago. Court ordered disposal of the petition, giving liberty to the bank to withhold the amount lying in the account of the petitioner. However, the bench made it clear that the authorities shall not effect any recovery over and above the amount lying in the account.
Justice Jagmohan Bansal passed these orders while disposing of a petition filed by Phoolwati (84) seeking directions to set aside an order dated Jan 5 whereby authorities had initiated recovery action against her.
