IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.12407 of 2007 Ashok Kumar Singh, Advocate, S/o Late Dr. Birendra Narain Singh, R/o 206, Pranami Enclave, Behind Saket Glaxy, West Boring Canal Road, Patna, P.S.-Shri Krishnapuri, District-Patna. ………. Petitioner. Versus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR. 2. Law Secretary-cum-Legal Remembrance, Government of Bihar, Patna. 3. Under Secretary, Department of Law and Justice. 4. Department of Finance through its Secretary. 5. Department of Mines and Geology through its Secretary. ……… Respondents. For the petitioner : Mr. Tej Bahadur Singh, Sr. Advocate. Mr. Abhijeet Lal, Advocate. For the State : Mr. Ranjit Sinha, A.C. to S.C.-10. ----------- 4. 23-09-2010 1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned counsel for the State of Bihar and its authorities (Respondent nos. 1 to 5). 2. This petition has been filed by the petitioner, who is a senior advocate of this court and also has been Standing Counsel for the period between 1995 and 2006 on behalf of the State. The petitioner was also appointed as Special Public Prosecutor by the State Government through its order vide Memo No. 6018 dated 21.12.1996 (Annexure-1) issued by the Department of Law & Justice under the signature of Law Secretary-cum-Legal Remembrance, Government of Bihar (Respondent no. 2) along with two junior advocates to assist him in conducting criminal cases on behalf of the Department of Mines and Geology in the courts of Munger and Lakhisarai against one M/s I.D.O. Construction & Industries Ltd., which was an accused along with its officers. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the 2 dispute is with regard to travelling allowances of the petitioner as up till 05.03.2003 the authorities paid travelling allowances to the petitioner by road @ Rs. 5/- per kilometer, although it had been revised by the Government as far back as on 05.04.2002 enhancing the same to Rs. 8/- per kilometer. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that after 5.03.2003 all the travelling allowances bills produced by the petitioner had been rejected by the authorities and no payment was made till 05.03.2005, when the petitioner resigned from doing such cases on the aforesaid ground. Learned counsel for the petitioner also avers that when he raised the said issue before the authority concerned, the letter of the petitioner was rejected by Respondent no. 2 vide letter dated 08.09.2005 (Annexure-9) holding that travelling allowances will be given to the petitioner only when he produces railway ticket by AC-II for the said travelling allowance and no payment will be made on the basis of road travel. Similar intimation was again sent by the authorities to the petitioner vide letter dated 14.10.2006(Annexure-10). 4. From the resolution of the Finance Department of the Government of Bihar bearing no. 2859 dated 5.04.2002 (Annexure-3/1), it is quite apparent that travelling allowance by taxi had been enhanced to Rs. 8/- per kilometer. From letter no. 1524 dated 10.03.2000(Annexure-3) issued by the Finance Department, Government of Bihar, it is also quite apparent that the rate of travelling allowances had been amended according to which, travelling by road was permitted and for the grade of the petitioner 3 the entitlement included private car also. In the aforesaid facts and circumstances, it is quite apparent that the petitioner was entitled to travel by his own car and he was permitted to do so till 05.03.2003 and the impugned order of the authorities directing him to produce railway tickets is quite illegal and they should have paid travelling allowance to the petitioner by road at the rate of Rs. 8/- per kilometer after 05.04.2002. 5. So far as learned counsel for the respondents is concerned, he has stated that when this case was filed on 20.09.2007 after serving two copies of the writ petition in the office of the Advocate General, intimation was immediately sent to the respondents but no instruction was sent by them. He further submits that when this case was taken up earlier, two fax messages on 26.08.2010 and 17.09.2010 were sent to the respondent authorities and in the mean time learned standing counsel No. 10 also had telephonic talk with the Law Secretary but in spite of that neither learned counsel for the State was approached nor any instruction was sent by the authorities concerned. Thus, it is quite apparent that the authorities have nothing to say against the statements of facts made by the petitioner in the instant writ petition. 6. In the aforesaid circumstances, impugned order dated 08.09.2005(Annexure-9) as well as letter dated 14.10.2006 (Annexure-10) issued by the Department of Law & Justice are hereby quashed and this writ petition is allowed with a direction to the respondents to immediately clear the travelling allowances bills of the 4 petitioner by road at the rate of Rs. 8/- per kilometer with effect from 05.04.2002 till 05.03.2005 in view of the aforesaid findings and observations. 7. Since much delay has been caused due to the negligent and illegal attitude of the authorities concerned specially Respondent no. 2, the travelling allowances must be paid to the petitioner with compound interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date the amount had fallen due. The said amount with interest has to be paid expeditiously, preferably within a period of three months from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order. Sujit (S.N.Hussain,J)