IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.5472 of 2009 MITHLESH KUMAR SINGH Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS ----------- 2. 29.04.2009 Heard learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned Counsel for the State. The petitioner claims to have been appointed as a Clerk in a Project School in 1982. His services were terminated exparte on 18.10.2004. In CWJC No. 15324 of 2004 by order dated 1.8.2005 the exparte termination was set aside as stated in the writ application. The State preferred LPA No. 1308 of 2005 when the matter was referred to a three man committee which has now passed the impugned order dated 27.5.2008 Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the services of the petitioner are sought to be terminated nearly twenty years later when earlier the writ Court had allowed the application. Learned Counsel for the State invites attention of the Court to the appointment letter of the petitioner at Annexure 2 of September 1982. The appointment letter states that the petitioner was not in government service and that he was being appointed in the light of orders of the State Minister, Department of Education. From the bare recitals in the letter of appointment, this Court finds no error in the impugned order stating that the appointment without advertisement was illegal. It needs no reiteration that mere long continuance of service cannot be the ground to uphold an invalid appointment contrary to law at its very inception. The Supreme Court in the case reported in (2005) 12 SCC 495 (Manjit Kaur & ors. Vrs. Salvation Army Macrobert Hospital) declined top interfere with an order of termination twenty years after the appointment on the ground of invalidity of the appointment. The writ application is dismissed. Snkumar/- (Navin Sinha,J.)