IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.352 of 2006 BINAY KUMAR VERMA, son of Late Rameshwar Prasad Sinha, resident of village-Maricha, P.O. & P.S. Sarai, District-Vaishali at Hajipur Versus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR through the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, Patna. 2. The Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 3. The Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 4. The deputy Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Bihar, Patna. 5. The Deputy Development Commissioner, Vaishali, District-Vaishali at Hajipur. 6. The Director Accounts and Administration, District Rural Development Agency, Vaishali at Hajipur. 7. The Accountant General, Bihar, Patna. ----------- For the Petitioner :- Mr. Amrendra Narayan Rai, Adv. For the State :- Mr. Ram Sagar Singh, A.C. to G.P.13 For the Accountant General:-Mr. Ranjan Kumar, Adv. ********* 3 19.01.2010 Heard learned counsel for the parties. The petitioner seeks a direction to the concerned respondent authorities of the State of Bihar for making payment of the post retiral benefits of the petitioner at par with the benefits to which a State Government employee is entitled under the Bihar Pension Rules (herein after referred to as the ‘rules’) by counting his entire service period from 4.11.1972 to 30.11.2004 i.e. the date on which the petitioner superannuated from service. Facts in brief are that the petitioner 2 was appointed as Amin under the Gandak Project, Bettiah in the Irrigation Department of the Government of Bihar and was posted against the post of clerk vide memo No. 6874 dated 31.10.1972 (Annexure-1) in the office of Director, Rehabilitation and Land Acquisition Department of Irrigation, on which post he joined on 04.11.1972. A requisition was placed vide letter No. 11229 dated 22.11.1984 (Annexure-2) by the erstwhile Rural rehabilitation and Panchayati Raj Deptt. before the Secretary Subordinate Selection Board for recommending names for appointment of Extension Officer. Following the said request a selection was conducted by the Bihar Subordinate Selection Board for appointment against the post of Extension Officer (Industry and Commerce) in which the petitioner and other participated. On completion of the selection process the petitioner by letter dated 14.7.1988 (Annexure- 4) was directed to present himself along with his certificates for its verification in connection with appointment against the post of Extension Officer (Industry and Commerce). Upon verification of the documents the petitioner 3 and others were posted in the different District Rural Development Agencies against the post of Extension Officer (Industry and Commerce) vide letter dated 29.9.1988 (Annexure-5). A list was appended to the said letter and the name of the petitioner appears at Serial No. 19 whereby he was posted in the District of Gopalganj. As a consequence of appointment and posting of the petitioner as Extension Officer (Industry and Commerce) vide memo No.1256 dated 29.9.1988, the petitioner was relieved by the controlling authority vide memo No. 162 dated 12.12.1988 (Annexure-6) to enable him to Join on the new post as an Extension Officer (Industry and Commerce) at Gopalganj. The appointment order of the petitioner bearing memo No. 1343 dated 28.12.1988 is enclosed at Annexure-7 to the writ petition, appointing him to the post of Extension Officer (Industry and Commerce) in the District of Gopalganj with effect from the date of his joining i.e. 13.12.1988. The petitioner continued to serve on the said post until his date of retirement on 30.11.2004. Following his retirement the petitioner was granted his post retiral benefits by the 4 authorities of the State of Bihar for the period of service 4.11.1972 until 12.12.1988 and for the period 13.12.1988 until 30.11.2004 the petitioner was paid his retiral dues by the authorities of the District Rural Development Agency. The petitioner prior to his retirement had represented before the Secretary Rural Development Department on 28.7.2004 for counting his entire service as qualifying service for payment of pension and other post retiral benefits. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits that his entire service was under the State of Bihar and thus it was not proper on the part of the authorities of the State of Bihar to have omitted the period of service rendered by him under the Agency for the reason that the advertisement issued in this regard was by the State of Bihar, the selection was made by the State Subordinate Service Selection Board and the appointment orders were issued by the appropriate authorities of the Rural Development Department. He submits that merely because he was posted in the District Rural Development Agency, Gopalganj the same could not take away 5 the benefit of being in Government service from the petitioner for the reason that the appointment was made by the Government themselves. A Counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the State and in which it is contend that the petitioner was a State Government employee from 4.11.1972 to 12.12.1988 and after that he became an employee of D.R.D.A. and therefore the State was only required to pay the retiral benefits for the period 4.11.1972 to 12.12.1988 which has since been paid to the petitioner. It was further contended that the services of the petitioner under D.R.D.A. from 13.12.1988 to 30.11.2004 is not a service under the State Government. The only issue which thus requires determination is whether the service of the petitioner from 13.12.1988 to 30.11.2004 under the Agency is a service rendered under the State Government or not. This issue would not be detaining this Court for long, for the reason that the said issue came up for consideration in a matter arising from C.W.J.C. No. 6467 of 2007(Manju Kumari & Ors Vs. State and a Bench of this Court by order dated 6 6.2.2008 has been pleased to hold that the services rendered while functioning as Extension Officer (Industry and Commerce) under the District Rural Development Agency, should be treated at par with the Government employees. Upon some confusion being created at the stage of the authorities of the State of Bihar led to filing of a modification application being M.J.C. No. 1544 of 2008 seeking clarification and which was allowed by the learned Judge by order dated 30.7.2008 and the Court while clarifying the matter was pleased to hold that the petitioners were entitled to all benefits like any other Government servant in the matter of receiving salary, G.P.F. and others benefits. It was also held that all other benefits to which the Government servants are entitled should be allowed to the petitioners of the said case. The Bench decision as referred to above in no uncertain terms clarifies the position that these Extension Officers (Industry and Commerce) were to be treated as State Government employees and the moment they are put at par the State Government employees they become entitled all benefits accruing to such 7 employees upon superannuation under the provisions of the Bihar Pension Rules. Rule 58 of the Rules sets out three pre-conditions for payment of pension and which requires; the person to be under the service of the Government, the employment to be against a substantive and permanent post and thirdly the service should be paid by the Government. Undoubtedly, the case of the petitioner fully qualifies within the parameters laid down in Rule 58. Having regard to the position emanating from the judgment and order passed in the case of Manju Kumari (supra) and the provisions of Rule 58 it is manifest that the service of the petitioner rendered under the agency w.e.f. 13.12.1988 to 30.11.2004 is a service rendered under the Govt. of Bihar. A natural consequence to this position would be that the entire service period of the petitioner right from his date of initial appointment i.e. 4.11.1972 until 30.11.2004 is to be treated as a service rendered under the State of Bihar and be treated as qualifying service for fixation and calculation of his post retiral benefits. The issue is decided in favour of the 8 writ petitioner. This writ petition is thus disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to represent before the appropriate authority of the State of Bihar for counting of his entire service period w.e.f 4.11.1972 to 30.11.2004 as qualifying service for the purpose of re- fixation and calculation of his pension and gratuity and the concerned authority of the State of Bihar on receipt of such representation would proceed to process the same and seek a fresh authorization from the Accountant General. Needless to add that consequent upon the authorization given by the Accountant General Bihar, Patna, the authority concerned would proceed to make payment of the same together with the arrears after adjusting the amount drawn by the petitioner from the State and the Agency towards post retiral dues. Such exercise is to be completed expeditiously and preferably within three months from the date of filing of the representation by the petitioner. The writ petition is disposed of with the direction aforesaid. Bibhash (Jyoti Saran, J. )