IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.9577 of 2003 HARESHWAR BIHARI SRIVASTWA, son of Sri Radhakant Prasad Srivastava, resident of village-Kharauni, P. S. & P. O At Marhaura, District- Chapra at present posted as Head Clerk, Flood Control Division No. 1, Madhubani Camp Padrauna, District Kushinagar (Padrouna) Uttar Pradesh. … Petitioner. Versus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR 2. The Commissioner, Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 3. The Engineer-in-Chief, Water Resources Department, Bihar, Patna. 4. The Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar, Siwan. 5. The District Magistrate, Siwan. 6. The Executive Engineer, Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar, Bettiah (West Champaran). .. Respondents. ----------- 4. 13.01.2010 Heard counsel for the petitioner and counsel for the State. The prayer of the petitioner in this writ application to the following effect:- “1. That this is an application for issuance of an appropriate writ/order or direction commanding the respondents as to why order no. 131 dated 11.6.2003 vide Memo No. 2633 passed by the respondent no. 3 contained in Annexure-3 be not quashed by which on Krishna Tiwari, junior to the petitioner has been ordered to join on the post of head-clerk at Flood Control Division No.-1, Madhubani, Padrouna under Kushinagar District (U.P.) where the petitioner is working on the same post i.e. head clerk for last long time and there is no other post of head clerk and further a writ/order or direction commanding the respondent to pay his salary as he was getting till June 2003. 2 in fact by efflux of time has become infructuous inasmuch as the petitioner has already retired from service and therefore no useful purpose would be served in testing the correctness and validity of the order of posting of one Krishna Tiwari contained in letter no. 131 dated 11.6.2003 placing him as a Head Clerk in the Division. The petitioner was working substantively on the post of correspondence clerk and holding current charge of post of Head Clerk. The petitioner however as noted above in the aforementioned prayer has also prayed for payment of his salary as he was getting prior to the posting of Krishna Tiwari and Mr. Tondon, counsel for the petitioner confining his prayer to the aforementioned aspect only would submit that by Annexure-9 to the letter of the Executive Engineer dated 25.3.2003 a request was made that the petitioner should be allowed to discharge the work of Head Clerk and on that basis this Court should direct for payment of salary for the post of head clerk. There are many ifs and buts in the service career of a person and merely because 3 a person who would hold the post of head clerk on temporary/ad hoc/current charge post that by itself will not clothe him with the right of salary and status of the post. Admittedly, the petitioner was never promoted on the post of Head clerk and therefore his working arrangement assigning him to duty of post of head clerk will not make him entitled for benefit of salary of the post of head clerk specially when in terms of order dated 11.6.2003 it was Krishna Tiwari who had remained functioning as Head clerk and discharging the post of Head Clerk at the place of posting of the petitioner. The prayer of payment of salary therefore is wholly misconceived and cannot be allowed specially when there is no order of any competent authority even assigning the duty of the post of head clerk to the petitioner on ad hoc basis. That being so, this writ application is wholly misconceived and is accordingly dismissed. kanchan (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)