IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.9052 of 2005 DR.HARE RAM KUMAR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS ----------- 6. 10.07.2008 Heard the learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned Counsel for the State. The petitioner was p[proceeded departmentally in the year 1991. An order of punishment of censure and withholding of salary less the subsistence allowance for the period of suspension came to be passed in 1993. The petitioner preferred an appeal in 1998 which remained pending when he has approached this Court in the present application in the year 2005. The submission on behalf of the State is that subsequently the appeal has been disposed in the year 2008. In the writ petition there is no explanation for this inordinate delay of five years on the part of the petitioner in preferring appeal or of the steps taken by the petitioner after 1998 to pursue the appeal. Punishment of censure is a minor punishment where second show cause etc. is not mandatory by law and in any event the punishment has already lost its effect after three years. In the entirety this Court is not persuaded to interfere with the order of minor punishment. To that extent the writ application is dismissed. This Court however finds substance in the submission of the petitioner that denial of salary for the period of suspension to him as punishment without a show cause notice was contrary to the law laid down by a Division Bench of this Court interpreting Rule 97(3) of the Bihar Service Code. The appeal of the petitioner is stated to have been subsequently dismissed on the technical ground of wrong forum and not on merit as submitted by the learned Counsel for the State. In view of the authoritative pronouncement of the Division Bench of this Court in the judgment reported in 2006(4) PLJR 514 on the interpretation of Rule 97(3) of the Bihar Service Code mandating a proper show cause notice before issuance of order of such punishment, that part of the punishment is not sustainable. This application is accordingly allowed. Let the arrears of salary less the subsistence allowance be made available to the petitioner within a maximum period of three months from the date of receipt and/or production of a copy of this order. Snkumar/- (Navin Sinha,J.)