IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.11378 of 2006 Krishna Nand Jha, son of Sri Indrakant Jha, resident of village Dhenga (West Tola), P.A. Arere, District Madhubani … Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar 2. The Commissioner cum Secretary, Health Department, Govt. of Bihar, Patna 3. The Director-in-Chief, Health Services, Govt. of Bihar, Patna 4. The Deputy Director, Health Department, Govt. of Bihar, Patna 5. State Leprosy Officer, Swasthwa Bhawan, Mahendru Sultanganj, Patna-6 6. The Civil Surgeon cum Chief Medical Officer, Madhubani 7. The Incharge Medical Officer, Leprosy Control Unit, Raj Nagar, Madhubani … Respondents ---------------------------------- 9. 9.8.2011 Heard Mr. Satish Chandra Jha, learned counsel for the petitioner and the counsel for the State. The prayer of the petitioner in this writ application reads as follows: “That the petitioner has come for issuance of appropriate writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondent to advertise the post of IIIrd grade and IVth Grade in Leprosy Control Programme and to appoint the petitioner on the 4th Grade as Ward Attendant in Leprosy Control Unit in view of the orders passed by this Hon’ble Court in C.W.J.C.No. 3294/1999 and analogous cases and L.P.A.No. 1064/1999 and analogous cases.” As wound be manifest from the aforementioned prayer it only intends to get the earlier order of this Court in C.W.J.C.No. 3294/1999 executed by the proceedings in hand again by way of a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. In the considered opinion of this Court if an order has already been passed by this Court directing the respondents to 2 advertise the post, there cannot be another direction by this Court either to abide by the earlier order or a fresh direction for advertising the post. The remedy in fact for the petitioner for the relief in hand was to file a contempt application wherein the issue could have been gone into by this Court as to whether the respondents had complied the order of this Court for advertising the post in question or they had some bonafide defence as with regard to non-compliance of the order of this Court. Learned counsel for the State has correctly brought to the notice of this Court that though the petitioner had filed this writ application for execution of the order of the learned Single Judge in C.W.J.C.No. 3294/1999 as also affirmed by the Division Bench in L.P.A.No. 1064/1999 some of the similarly situated persons having an identical grievance had filed a contempt application which was dismissed by the Division Bench by noticing the subsequent developments. Mr. Jha, however, would immediately submit that the Division Bench order cannot close the doors of the petitioner, inasmuch as they are not party to the said proceedings. In the considered opinion of this Court whenever question implementation of the same order would arise, if the issue has already been decided and that too by the Division Bench, the same would be definitely binding on the petitioner. In the present case the direction was that at least 457 vacancies in Leprosy Control Unit should be advertised in which 1/3rd of such post i.e. around 150 should be kept reserved for the persons like petitioner 3 whose earlier appointments were cancelled on the ground of fraud/ fake appointments made by Mr. Rajendra Prasad, the then State Leprosy Officer. The respondents, however, had not advertised the 457 posts on the ground that subsequent to the direction of this Court the whole scheme of Leprosy Control had itself undergone a change and a decision had been taken in view of the Government of India policy to reduce the number of staff in Leprosy Control Programme because the condition of Leprosy in this Country has come down to a moderate/ low level. Such decision taken by the Government of India in its letters dated 22.3.2002 and 27.12.2002 had made the State Government to reformulate its scheme of Leprosy Control by integrating the peripheral staffs of leprosy into general health care system and the Government had also directed to depute the peripheral staff of Leprosy at the unit of general health care i.e. a Primary Health Centres and additional Primary Health Centres. These defence were examined by the Division Bench when a contempt application, M.J.C.No. 1878/2006 was filed by one Om Prakash Pandey a person similarly situated alike the petitioner. The Division Bench having noted the aforementioned defence was satisfied that in view of the subsequent development there could be no contempt and had also held that no further order was required to be passed. In view of the aforementioned order of the Division Bench dated 17.9.2008 in M.J.C.No. 1878/2006 (Om Prakash Pandey vs. State of Bihar & ors.) this Court must hold that this writ application filed on 14.9.2006 has become infructuous. 4 At this stage Mr. Jha would point out that on one hand the Government has been taking consistent stand before this Court that the Leprosy Control Unit has been down sized and its staff are being adjusted in the general health care but on the other hand a number of appointments have been made even on 15.6.2011 and 20.6.2011. In this regard he has produced the copy of the order of the Civil Surgeon, Purnea wherein seven persons by the two office orders No. 2013 dated 15.6.2011 and 2118 dated 20.6.2011 have been reinstated and posted in the office of the District Leprosy Officer, Purnea. The copies of both the orders having been taken on record of this case, this Court on their perusal would find that such orders have been passed by the Civil Surgeon, Purnea in compliance of the order of this Court passed in L.P.A.Nos. 230/2011, 224/2011 and 298/2011. Let it be noted that these Letters Patent Appeal had arisen out of the judgment of termination of service of those employees of the Health Department whose appointments were earlier declared to be illegal and for whom a Division Bench of this Court had directed the Health Department to constitute a five men Committee. As a matter of fact when five men Committee had declared their appointment to be forged/ illegal/ irregular, that order was challenged again in the writ petition by the affected persons and when the learned Single Judge had directed for their reinstatement in service the matter had traveled to the Division Bench in appeal at the instance of the State of Bihar. Thus, it would be clear that 5 the cases relied by Mr. Jha are not of fresh appointment but only relate to reinstatement of such persons who were earlier removed from service and were to be reinstated back under the orders of this Court. Obviously the case of the petitioner cannot be compared with those cases. Mr. Jha in fact has not been able to produce any order of direct appointment of any person in the Leprosy Control Unit after the Government had decided to down size of Leprosy Control Programme and utilize the peripheral staff of leprosy in general health care system. The reliance placed by him on certain information given by the Principal Information Officer as with regard to the number of vacancies or existence of the scheme of Leprosy Control would also not clinch the issue, inasmuch as no appointments have been made against those posts. Admittedly the petitioners were to be given 1/3rd vacancies of the total post meant to be filled by way of direct recruitment. Since no direct recruitment has been made in the Leprosy Control Programme after the Government of India decision dated 22.3.2002 and 27.12.2002, there could not be also absorption of the petitioner against 1/3rd post of direct recruitment specially when the whole scheme of leprosy eradication itself as explained above has undergone a total change. That being so, this Court would not find any merit in this application and the same is, accordingly, dismissed. (Mihir Kumar Jha,J.) Surendra/