IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No. 8019 of 2011 Shio Nandan Tiwari, Ex.Store Keeper Son Of Late Kashi Nath Tiwari Resident Of Mohalla-Puraniganj Near Bizali Office,Munger,Police Station And District-Munger ………………….. Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar Through Commissioner-Cum-Secretary Public Health Engineering Department, Bihar,Patna. 2. The Engineer-In-Chief, Public Health Engineering Department, Bihar, Patna. 3. The Superintending Engineer, Public Health Engineering Department Circle, Munger, District-Munger. 4. The Executive Engineer, Public Health Engineering Division, Munger, District-Munger. ………………. Respondents ---------------------------------- For the Petitioner: Mr. Shyaram Sahi, Advocate Mr. Ram Sewak Choudhary, Advocate For the State: Mr. Ajay, SC-11 **************** 03. 15.11.2011 Petitioner was stated to be a Store Keeper working under the PHED Department, posted at Munger between the period 21.02.1981 to 11.07.1988. The allegation against him is that during this period he failed to give proper accounts for the store, which was under his charge, which on proper verification a short-fall of Rs. 1,43,12,328.50/- was found by the authorities. They decided to initiate a proceeding against the petitioner under Rule 43(b) of the Bihar Pension Rules and in this regard a notice- cum-charge-sheet was served upon him in terms of Annexure- 3, dated 20.11.2007. Petitioner wants quashing of this notice and charge-sheet on the ground that such a proceeding can not be maintained within the ambit of the powers, which the respondents have under the said Rule. Brief facts are that the petitioner retired from post of Store Keeper on 31.08.2004. The charges for omission or 2 commission of the kind relates to the year 1981-1988. The notice and the charge-sheet has been served upon the petitioner by virtue of Annexure- 3 on 20.11.2007. Based on these short facts, contention of the counsel is that such a notice or charge-sheet can not be served on the petitioner and an enquiry initiated as it is barred by the time frame laid down under the said Rule. Any proceeding of such kind must be initiated during the period of service of the petitioner and that too for an omission or commission not beyond four years of alleged charge or allegation. There are many a decisions on this count of this Court, which have been relied upon by learned counsel for the petitioner. The Court need not take notice of all these decision, except 2010 (3) PLJR 845 (Urmila Sharma @ Urmila Singh Versus The State of Bihar through Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, Patna & Ors.). The stand of the counsel for the State is that respondents were forced into taking action against the petitioner because the petitioner tried to dilly-dally and avoid cooperation with the respondents in matter of accounting of the Store and the issue dragged on till he came to retire. Since it is a kind of continuing offence, the time frame which the petitioner is looking at may not help him or bail him out of his predicament. With due respect to learned counsel for the State, the reasoning or submission made by him, does not find favour of this Court in view of settled position of law on this count over many a years Rule 43 (b) has been strictly interpreted with regard to the time frame and the right of the employer to exercise such power 3 within the so called statutory period of four years. From what has been noticed above, obviously the respondent authorities have lost track or sight of the laid down position with regard to the power to be exercised under Rule 43(b) and any action contemplated pursuant to Annexure- 3 is squarely in the teeth of those decisions. Whatever be the quantum of the unaccounted value of the store, the petitioner can not be pined down with that responsibility now specially when the State has not been vigilant about its right in proceeding against the petitioner well within the time frame available to them. Annexure- 3 along with charge-sheet appended thereto stands quashed and the Writ allowed. SKM (Ajay Kumar Tripathi, J.)