IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.5808 of 2011 Basant Lal & Ors Versus The State Of Bihar & Ors ----------- 02. 29.7.2011 Petitioners were employed/appointed by what is know as Sark Systems India Limited on the basis of a contract entered by them with the State of Bihar to provide information to the citizens located at the villages under what is known as E- Governance System. State had no role in their engagement or recruitment but on the basis of the agreement State paid money to Sark Systems India Limited. Somewhere down the line the service being provided by the Sark Systems India Limited was found to be far from satisfactory and the State was compelled to annul the contract. However, some of these persons who were working as computer operators / data entry operators were retained by the district authorities on a fixed emoluments for the period of work being taken from them. Obviously this system was adopted or innovated in view of sudden developments arising from termination of contract. In the above stated circumstance, obviously the petitioners’ engagement was on contract basis. If the State feels that no further work is required to be taken by them or they have put yet another mechanism, then this Court fails to understand under what authority of law a direction can be issued by the 2 High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to retain the petitioners. The nature of their engagement being such, writ in fact may not be maintainable much less the question of issuing a mandamus on the issue. However, keeping in mind that State is supposed to be a welfare State and all these petitioners are supposed to be citizens of India, they have surely right to claim for outstanding dues if they have done the work. This aspect will be examined on the basis of claim raised by them and must be settled within a period of three months. The writ application is disposed of with above direction. rkp ( Ajay Kumar Tripathi, J.)