IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.5788 of 2009 Kameshwar Singh Versus The State Of Bihar & Ors ----------- 3/ 28/07/2011 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned counsel for the State. The petitioner was a correspondence clerk. He was granted first time bound promotion on 31.12.1990 with effect from 4.8.1990. He cleared the departmental examination thereafter in 1998. The results have been published in 1999. The time bound promotion has been cancelled on 6.3.2009 on the ground that on the date of promotion he had not passed the departmental examination and therefore the promotion was irregular. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in similar circumstances noticing that in fact the departmental examination had been cleared subsequently, this Court in C.W.J.C. No.3931/04 set aside a similar order of cancellation. Learned counsel for the State contends that on the date that the promotion was granted the petitioner was not eligible as he had not cleared the departmental examination. Considering all aspects of the matter that the promotion was granted as far back as 4.8.1990 and has 2 been cancelled as late as 6.3.2009 and the intervening act of the petitioner having cleared the examination barely 7 years after his promotion, the passage of time since then, that any action for recovery of the monetary benefits so paid would be against equity, the Court sets aside the order dated 21.3.2009. No other ground has been urged in the counter affidavit for the ineligibility of the petitioner to the first time bound promotion. The writ application is allowed. Any recovery effected from the petitioner in the meantime is directed to be refunded. KC ( Navin Sinha, J.)