Statutory protection of gratuity bars employer recovery of alleged excess salary by deduction from terminal benefits.

Gratuity payable to a deceased employee was treated as a protected terminal benefit, and the employer could not recover alleged excess salary by deduction from that amount. The Patna HC noted that the deduction was ordered after the employee's death and without giving the petitioner an opportunity of hearing, and it applied Section 13 of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 to hold that gratuity is not liable to attachment or recovery in the absence of lawful basis under the Act. The deduction order was therefore unsustainable, and refund of the deducted amount was directed.

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Issues: Whether the employer could recover alleged excess salary from the gratuity payable to the deceased employee, and whether the deduction order was sustainable in law.

Analysis: The amount in question was deducted from gratuity payable to an employee who had died in harness. The deduction order was passed after the employee's death and without affording the petitioner any opportunity of hearing. The statutory protection under Section 13 of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 bars gratuity from being attached in execution of any decree or order, and the Court treated gratuity as a protected terminal benefit that cannot be taken away by the employer by way of recovery.

Conclusion: The recovery from gratuity was held impermissible and the deduction order was unsustainable. The petitioner was entitled to refund of the deducted amount.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition succeeded on the ground that gratuity enjoys statutory protection and could not be subjected to recovery of the alleged excess payment.

Ratio Decidendi: Gratuity payable under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 is statutorily protected and cannot be recovered by attachment or deduction in the absence of a lawful basis consistent with the Act.

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