IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA LPA No.388 of 2009 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR, through the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, Patna 2. The Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Mines & Geology, Govt. of Bihar, New Secretariat, Vikas Bhawan, Patna. 3. The Special Secretary, Department of Mines & Geology, Govt.of Bihar, New Secretaria, Vikas Bhawan, Patna. 4. The Deputy Director (Mines), Bhagalpur Circle, Bhagalpur…….(Appellants/Respondents) Versus 1. GURUSHARAN PRASAD SINGH son of Chamru Mahto, R/O Village- Ramdiha, P.S-Noorsarai, Distt-Nalanda. 2. The Accountant General (Bihar), Patna, Veerchand Patel Marg, Patna………Respondent/Respondent. ----------- 5. 7-Jul-09 Heard learned counsel for the appellants and learned counsel for the respondent/writ petitioner. The writ Court has taken pains to go deep into all the relevant facts. Even if it is held that further notice was not required to be given before awarding any punishment under the Pension Rules, the finding that the punishment awarded to the writ petitioner after he superannuated from service was impermissible because the punishment could only be within the ambit of Rule- 43(b) of the Bihar Pension Rules cannot be doubted. On that account, at best the matter could have been remitted to the disciplinary authority for purpose of considering what punishment could be appropriate under Rule 43(b) of the Bihar Pension Rules. However, from the detailed discussions made by the learned writ Court in Paragraph-18,19 and 20, we find that the Court 2 was justified in not remitting the matter back to the authority because even after the enquiry officer had found the writ petitioner not guilty of the charges, the matter was kept pending at the level of disciplinary authority for nine years. There are other circumstances to justify the views of the writ Court such as superannuation of the writ petitioner and the charges relate to events of the year 1973-75. On consideration of all the relevant facts and the law, we find no good reason to interfere with the order of the writ Court. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed. perwez (Shiva Kirti Singh, ACJ.) (Anjana Prakash,J.)