IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA LPA No.1000 of 2005 1. Smt. Asha Sinha W/o Late Vidya Nath Prasad Sinha 2. Prakash Kumar 3. Deepak Kumar 4. Jyoti Kumar Sinha 5. Rashmi Kumar Sinha 6. Kiran Kumar Sinha, All R/o village-Usri Bazar, P.O. Shikarpur, District- Patna 7. Smt. Pratibha, D/o Late Vaidya Nath Prasad Sinha, W/o Sri Prakash Narayan Srivastava, R/O Hajipur Post Office, Hajipur, vaishali. 8. Nibha Rani Sinha, D/o of Late Vaidya Nath Prasd Sinha, W/o Shri Mukul Prabha, Nichugram Kulti Asansol, District-Burdawan (W.B), 9. Anubha Sinha 10. Akansha Sinha 11. Khushbu Sinha,All Ds/ of Late Vaidya Nath Prasad Sinha, All R/o village-Usri Bazar, P.O. Shikarpur, District- Patna Verrsus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR through the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bihar, Main (old) secretariat, Patna-15, 2. The Director General-cum-Inspector General of Police, Old Secretariat, Patna-15, 3. The Home secretary-cum=Commissioner, Govt. of Bihar, Old Secretariat, Patna-15. ----- For the petitioner : Mr. Ram Balak Mahto, Senior Advocate, With Mr. Bal Mukund Pd.Sinha For the State Mr. Awadhesh Kumar Pandey Gdovt.Advocate-7 with Mr. Gyan Prakash Ojha ------ 11. 15.12.2008. Writ petitioner-appellant, aggrieved by the order dated 28.7.2005 passed by a learned Single Judge in C.W.J.C.No.11013 of 1999, has preferred this appeal under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent. During the pendency of the appeal, he died and this appeal is being pursued by his 2 legal heir. Writ-petitioner filed the application, inter alia, praying for a direction to the respondents to promote him to the post of Inspector with effect from 2nd of February, 1978 and on such promotion, promote to the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police from the due date. Said prayer was resisted in the writ application, inter alia, on the ground that punishment of censure was awarded on the petitioner in the year 1976 and the effect of that order expired in February, 1979 and therefore, he was promoted to the post of Inspector with effect from 1.3.1979. This found favour with the learned Single Judge. While assailing the order of the learned Single Judge, Mr. Ram Balak Mahto, Senior Advocate, appearing on behalf of the appellant, submits that the effect of the order of censure shall be wiped out after the expiry of three years from the date the misconduct was conducted. In support of his submission, he has placed reliance on a Division Bench judgment of this Court in the case of Santosh Kumar Singh Vs. The State of Bihar and others 1993 (1) PLJR 513 and our attention has been drawn to paragraph no.21 of the judgment, which reads as follows: “21.- Further the petitioner has not been awarded any major punishment; 3 It is now well settled that any minor punishment inflicted upon an employee remain in force for three years from the date of occurrence.” G.A.7 appears on behalf of the State. We do not find any substance in the submission of Mr. Mahto and the decision relied on has no application in the facts of the present case. Writ petitioner had committed misconduct on 7th of February, 1976. For a period of three years, he was not entitled to be promoted. After the expiry of three years, the effect of the order of punishment may not be decisive for promotion and loose its effect but it can not be said that the order of punishment shall be wiped out after three years. In the case of Santosh Kumar Singh (supra), it has been held that minor punishment inflicted upon an employee shall remain in force for three years from the date of occurrence but it has nowhere held that it shall be wiped out retrospectively. If it is held to be, the whole purpose of punishment shall become meaningless. We do not find any merit in this appeal and it is dismissed accordingly. ahk (C. K. Prasad) (Dr. Ravi Ranjan)