IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.448 of 2011 Ram Shankar Singh Versus The State Of Bihar & Ors ----------- 06. 01.8.2011 Assertion of the petitioner with regard to his seniority in the gradation list, which has now been worked out by the respondent State, is based on the fact that according to him, he is entitled to his seniority on the post of Assistant Engineer from the date he passed the engineering examination and not from the date promotion as such was given to him by the respondent authorities. He submits that a decision had been rendered by the Hon`ble Supreme Court way back in the case of Pramod Kumar Pankaj v. State of Bihar, reported in 2004 (2) PLJR 84 (SC). After taking into consideration the ratio of the above decision, the Personnel Department was obliged to issue notification on this count and the earlier notification issued by the Water Resources Department to that extent was held to be bad. In the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State, this aspect has not been reflected or answered. However, instead of adjourning the matter, in view of the prayer which is being made by the petitioner that he will bring all these facts to the notice of the authorities and they may still get liberty to respond on this question, writ is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to move the Principal Secretary, 2 General Administration, Government of Bihar, on the issue and the Principal Secretary would be required to take a decision and communicate his outcome within a period of three months from the date of filing of the application along with a copy of this order. The writ application is disposed of with above direction. rkp ( Ajay Kumar Tripathi, J.)