IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.9919 of 2005 GHANA NAND JHA son of Late Chandra Shekhar Jha, resident of village and P.o.- Chanouraganj, P.s. Jhanjharpur, District- madhubani, retired Headcleark Special Land Acquistion office, Koshi Project, Purnea, (Saharsa) Versus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR 2. The Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Water Resources, Bihar, Patna. 3. The Director, Land Acquisition & Rehabilitation Department of Water Resources, Bihar, Patna. 4. The Additional Director, Land Acquisition & Rehabilitation Swarnrekha Project, Vikas Bhawan, Aditypur, Jamshedpur (West- Singhbhum). 5. the Rehabilitation Officer, No.2, Chandil Jamshedpur (West Singhbhum) 6. The Special Land Acquisition Officer, Koshi Project, Purnea presently –Saharsa. ----------- 5 19.03.2010 Heard Mr. Satish Chandra Mitra, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, Mr. Himanshu Kumar learned A.C. to G.A.5 for the State and Mr. Dhurba Mukherjee, learned counsel for the State of Jharkhand and its authorities. The petitioner who superannuated from the post of Headclerk with effect from 31.1.1997, has filed the writ petition for payment of his unutilized leave salary for 240 days and interest on belated payment of G.P.F. amount. Learned counsel for the petitioner 2 submits that the interest on belated payment of G.P.F. amount is statutorily admissible to him. In so far as the claim of unutilized leave salary of 240 days is concerned, it is stated that the amount has remained pending by reason of non adjustment of amount of Rs. 1,85,000/- and Rs. 70,000/- which was handed over by the Executive Engineer camp Division, Chandil to the Industrial Security Consultancy. He submits that the petitioner was in no manner connected with the said transaction. Learned counsel for the State submits that as the entries of the said advances has been made by this petitioner belatedly in the year 1996 when the rehabilitation office itself got dissolved in the year 1991 hence the amount(s) in question has been kept pending subject to the final decision on the issue. Learned counsel for the petitioner admits to the payment of pension, gratuity and other dues. Indisputably there is no proceeding initiated by the authorities in withholding the amount(s) in question. In such circumstances, withholding of the unutilized leave salary of the petitioner even when he 3 superannuated as back as on 31.1.1997, is absolutely illegal as well as unjust. In the result, the writ petition is allowed, the concerned respondents of the state of Bihar are directed to make payment of the unutilized leave salary of the petitioner within a period of three months from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order. However, the claim for interest on belated payment of G.P.F. being raised after three years of the said payment, does not merit consideration and is rejected. Bibhash (Jyoti Saran, J. )