MUNNA LAL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Mr.Shivendra Kishore, learned counsel for the petitioner and the counsel for the State as also for the Accountant General.

(2.) THE petitioner in fact assails a communication sent by the Directorate of Statistics and Evaluation, Planning and Development Department, to the Accountant General, Bihar, wherein a sum of Rs. 1,21,517.35 paise was sought to be shown as excess amount paid to the petitioner and hence, deductible from the amount of gratuity payable to the petitioner.

(3.) COUNSEL for the State, on the other hand, would submit that since the facts are absolutely admitted that the petitioner was initially appointed on the post of Compiler on 26.10.1964 and later on got appointed on the post of Junior Statistical Assistant/Block Statistical Supervisor/ Investigator vide office order No. 679 dated 15.7.1975 in a higher pay scale he was automatically not entitled to get his time bound promotion in terms of the resolution of the Finance Department dated 30.12.1981. He would further submit that even the second time bound promotion of the petitioner was not admissible as in the space of 25 years inasmuch as he had been again promoted vide office order No. 537 dated 26.8.1997. The argument, therefore, of the learned counsel for the State is that if the petitioner was not entitled to earn such time bound promotion, the amount paid to the petitioner being excess payment, the same was definitely recoverable and in this context he has placed reliance on a Division Bench judgment covering exactly the same issue in the case of the Secretary, Department of Planning and Development & Anor. V/s. Awadh Muni Prasad & Anor. disposed of on 7.1.2002 in L.P.A. No. 464 of 2001 (Annexure - &aposB&apos). Learned counsel for the State would further rely on the subsequent judgment of the Full Bench of this Court in the case Ram Binod Singh V/s. The Bihar State Electricity Board & Ors., reported in 2007(3) PLJR 328.