HC: Salary Recovery of Risk & Hardship Allowance Without Show Cause Violates Natural Justice

The petitioners challenged an order by which the authorities directed recovery from their salaries of amounts paid as risk and hardship allowance for the period April 2019 to March 2025. The core grievance was that the recovery decision was taken unilaterally, without issuing any show-cause notice or granting the petitioners an opportunity to explain their case.

Aggrieved by the sudden recovery of salary, the petitioners approached the Delhi High Court seeking the quashing of the impugned order.

Main Issue: Whether recovery of alleged excess risk and hardship allowance could be ordered from employees’ salaries without issuing a show cause notice and without following the principles of natural justice.

Delhi HC Held: The Hon’ble High Court set aside the impugned recovery order, holding that the action suffered from a violation of natural justice. The Court directed the respondents to first issue a show cause notice, consider the petitioners’ replies, and thereafter pass a reasoned and speaking order in accordance with law.

The petitioners were permitted to raise all factual and legal pleas, including reliance on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Jogeswar Sahoo & Ors. v. District Judge, Cuttack. Til a fresh decision is taken after due process, the Court restrained the respondents from effecting any recovery.

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