CAT sets aside case to recover cost of surgery

CHENNAI: S Santharam, an employee at the Speed Post concentration centre in Chennai, was left shaken after surviving an accident while on duty and undergoing a major hip surgery after that. But, what really wound him up was an announcement from the postal department to recover the “excess amount” paid for the surgery from his salary. The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has now directed that this order be set aside.
Santharam met with a road accident on February 9, 2010 along with four other staff members. Since his injury was serious, he was referred for hip surgery at MIOT Hospital and was covered by the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS). Initially, hospital authorities said the surgery would cost an estimated Rs 92,000 but revised it to Rs 41,229 on coming to know that Santharam was covered by CGHS. Subsequently, the amount was paid directly by the department to hospital authorities.
However, he received a direction nine months later that the department planned to recover a sum of Rs 18,196 from his salary starting December, 2010, as it was paid in excess of the amount of Rs 23,033 sanctioned for his surgery under the scheme. The latter was the rate charged by government hospitals, authorities said.
Passing orders, a bench of B Venkateswara Rao, judicial member and R Satapathy, administrative member, said that the department had directly paid hospital authorities, and not Santharam.