IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA LPA No.894 of 2008 1. Panna Lal Upadhyay son of late Baldeo Upadhyay, resident of Mohalla Lohanipur West, P.O. and P.S. Kadamkuan, District Patna. 2. Ramsagar Singh son of Late Baleshwar Singh resident of village Bhairo Bigha, P.O. & P.S. Sare, District Nalanda. Versus 1. The Bihar School Examination Board through its Chairman, Patna -17. 2. The Secretary, Bihar School Examination Board, Patna -17. ----------- For the Appellants : Mr. Ashok Kumar Mishra. For the Respondents 1 & 2: Mr. Lalit Kishore, Sr.Advocate & Mr. Manish Kumar. ------------ P R E S E N T Hon'ble the Chief Justice & Hon'ble Mr. Justice Kishore K. Mandal ------------ Dated, the 17th November, 2008. There is no merit in the submission of the counsel for the appellant that for want of appearance of the petitioner, the Single Judge could not have heard and decided the writ petition on merits. The Division Bench in its decision dated 12th February, 2008 passed in L.P.A. No. 940 of 2007 (Kishori Prasad Vs. The State of Bihar & Others) has not laid down any absolute proposition that where the counsel for the petitioner is not present, either the hearing of the matter should be postponed or dismiss it for want of prosecution and no other course is permissible. - 2 - 2. In this view of the matter, dismissal of the writ petition on merit by the Single Judge cannot be faulted. 3. Mr. Lalit Kishore, Additional Advocate General III, submits that he has no objection if the order of cost is set aside. 4. The award of cost of Rs.10,000/- (Rupees Ten thousand) by the Single Judge is set aside. 5. With the aforesaid modification, the Letters Patent Appeal is disposed of. R. M. Lodha, CJ Kishore K. Mandal, J AMIN/-