IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.3680 of 1997 1. MARKENDAY PRASAD SINGH , son of late Rana Ranpal Singh, resident of Mansa Pandey Bag, C.K. Road, P O Arrah, P S Arrah, Mufassil, District- Bhojpur. 2. Surendra Nath Sinha, son of late Jagannath Prasad Verma, resident of – Near High School, Mohalla- Brahampura, P O- M.I.T., Muzaffarpur, P S M I T, District- Muzaffarpur. 3. Mazharul Hasnain, son of late Wajahat Hussain, resident of Haroon Nagar, Sector I, P S. Phulwari, District- Patna. 4. Kumar Nagendra Prasad Sinha, son of (late) Shivadeshwari Prasad Sinha, North Mandiri, P S. Budha Colony, District- Patna. 5. Madhusudan Prasad, son of late Shiv Ramchandra Prasad, resident of village Sherpur, P O MIC Bela, District- Muzaffarpur. 6. Mithila Nand Prasad, son of Sri K. Prasad, resident of Qtr. No. 9, Road No. 21, P S. Gardanibagh, District- Patna. … Petitioners. Versus 1. STATE OF BIHAR through The Secretary, Govt. of Bihar, Patna. 2. Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Finance Department, Govt. of Bihar, Patna. 3. Chief Controller of Accounts, Finance (Audit) Department, Govt. of Bihar, Patna. 4. Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Personals and Administrative Reforms, Govt. of Bihar, Patna. … Respondents. ----------- 5. 13.05.2011 No one appears for the petitioners. Counsel for the State is present. In this writ application, the petitioners have made a prayer for considering their case for promotion on vacant post of Controller of Accounts on the ground that the Departmental Promotion Committee (D.P.C.) had already made a recommendation for their promotion. 2 The respondents have filed a counter affidavit wherein it has been stated that the said recommendation of the D.P.C. was based on an erroneous seniority list and that matter was sent again to the Finance Department for reconsideration of fixation of their seniority. As the pleadings on record do not suggest as to whether any finality was arrived at in the matter of fixation of seniority, this Court in stead of keeping this writ petition pending would direct the respondents to consider the case of promotion of the petitioners strictly in accordance with law and if it is found that any person junior to them had been promoted while the petitioners were continuing in service, they shall also be promoted after following the prescribed procedure. It is however made clear that if no person junior to the petitioners had been promoted till the date of superannuation of the petitioners, there would be no question of promotion of these petitioners inasmuch as a mere recommendation of departmental promotion committee being only a recommendation is not binding on the State Government which can refuse to accept the 3 same for valid reason. In the present case, as noted above, the respondents had a genuine problem in drawing inter se seniority between candidates of general category and the reserved category and therefore if such recommendation based on a fallacious/incorrect gradation list had recommended for promotion of petitioners that could have been looked into before notifying such promotion on the basis of a correctly drawn seniority list. With the aforementioned observation and direction, this writ application is disposed of. kanchan ( Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)