order no. 263, dated 22.01.2014 was issued by the respondent no. 3, reducing their scale of pay as against the 1st ACP and 2nd ACP in the scale of Rs. 6,500 – 10,500 and Rs.10,000 – 15,200 respectively to the scale of Rs.5,500 – 9,000 and Rs.6,500 – 10,500 respectively, without giving any opportunity of hearing to the petitioners. Before said order could have been made operative, several persons moved before this Court by filing writ petitions i.e. W.P.(S) No. 1101 of 2014, 889 of 2014, 1716 of 2014 and 2220 of 2014, which were allowed by this Court. Thereafter, a general instruction was issued directing the authorities not to effect any recovery even with respect to other persons including the petitioner no. 3 herein and petitioners continued getting the benefits as per fixation of their pay. Thereafter, petitioners were granted promotion in the Cadre of Jharkhand Agriculture Service Class-II followed by due posting in their respective posts vide Notification No. 3321, dated 01.09.2015, pursuant to one or other orders passed in respective writ petitions. After said direction, cadre of the petitioners had been changed and question of continuation of scale etc., which had been granted to them vide order dated 23.07.2007 and subsequently cancelled vide order dated 22.01.2014 respectively, became otiose and thereby irrelevant so far these petitioners are concerned. Petitioners are functioning as Class-II officers at their respective posts after promotion. However, all of a sudden, letter no. 2359, dated 09.06.2016 had been issued whereby at para-2, it has been decided to effect recovery of differential amount in terms of office order no. 263, dated 22.01.2014, from all those persons who are not party-petitioners in the earlier writ petitions. Being aggrieved, petitioners have knocked door of this Court.
