“Orders passed by the employer seeking recovery of monetary benefits wrongly extended to employees, can only be interfered with, in cases where such recovery would result in a hardship of a nature, which would far outweigh, the equitable balance of the employer’s right to recover.”

In the following few situations, recoveries by the employers, would be impermissible in law: Recovery from employees belonging to Class-III and Class-IV service (or Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ service); Recovery from retired employees, or employees who are due to retire within one year of the order of recovery; Recovery from employees, when the excess payment has been made for a period in excess of five years, before the order of recovery is issued; Recovery in cases where an employee has wrongfully been required to discharge duties of a higher post, and has been paid accordingly, even though he should have rightfully been required to work against an inferior post.

– Hon’ble Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, State of Punjab v. Rafiq Masih, (2015) 4 SCC 334.