JUDGMENT

Anil R. Dave, J. —

1. Leave granted.

2. Being aggrieved by the Judgment and Order dated 26th June, 2008 delivered in LPA No.978 of 2007 by the High Court of Judicature at Patna, this appeal has been filed by the original petitioner-appellant herein.

3. The appellant was appointed as a constable and while undergoing training at Commandant Training Centre, B.M.P.-1, Ranchi he was placed under suspension. During the period of suspension he had absconded from the Training Centre, Ranchi without giving any intimation to any authority. Thereafter, he had returned to Palamu Headquarters and had reported his arrival. Thus, he had unauthorizedly remained absent for 105 days. In view of his above stated misconduct, the departmental inquiry had been conducted and as a result of inquiry proceeding, by an order dated 14th September, 1977, his services had been brought to an end by way of punishment.

4. Being aggrieved by the order of punishment, the appellant filed an appeal before the Deputy Inspector General of Police, S.C.R., Ranchi, who did not find any substance in the appeal and, therefore, dismissed the same.

5. Thereafter, the appellant made a representation to the Director General & Inspector General of Police, Bihar at Patna for his reinstatement on 7th January, 1989. The said representation was also turned down by the Director General & Inspector General of Police, Bihar. It appears from the order dated 28th July, 1989, passed by the Director General & Inspector General of Police, Bihar, that the appellant had also made a representation earlier but the said representation had been rejected.

6. The appellant was not aggrieved by the order of punishment but he was aggrieved because no pension was paid to him. Therefore, after about 10 years, he filed C.W.J.C. No.1971/2000 in the High Court of Judicature at Patna. In the said petition a direction was given to the concerned authorities to look into the grievance of the petitioner. By giving such direction, the petition was disposed of on 29th February, 2000.

7. In pursuance of the aforestated order passed by the High Court, the concerned authorities considered the case of the appellant and came to the conclusion that he was not entitled to any pension as he was removed from service. Final decision was communicated to the appellant by the Superintendent of Police, Palamu on 10.6.2001.

8. Being aggrieved by the Order dated 10th June, 2001, the appellant filed C.W.J.C. No.8260 of 2002. After hearing the concerned parties, the said petition was rejected on 28th September, 2007.

9. Being aggrieved by the Order rejecting the petition, the appellant filed L.P.A. No.978 of 2007 which was also dismissed on 26th June, 2008 and, therefore, the appellant filed the present appeal wherein the order dated 26th June, 2007 dismissing the Letters Patent Appeal has been challenged.

10. Leaned senior counsel Mr. Nagendra Rai appearing for the appellant has very fairly submitted that the appellant was not aggrieved by the order whereby his service was terminated but he was aggrieved as he was not being paid pension. He submitted that according to Rule 46 of Bihar Pension Rules, 1950 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Rules’), unless an employee has been dismissed or removed from service for misconduct, insolvency or inefficiency, the employee would get pension upon termination of his service. He further submitted that the appellant had neither been dismissed nor been removed but he had been discharged from service by the order dated 14th September, 1977 and, therefore, the appellant was entitled to get pension. So as to substantiate his case, he relied upon the following judgments: (1) Raghunandan Mishra v. State of Bihar and others,1 1985 BLJ 721; (2) Fagoo Paswan v. The State of Bihar & ors.,2 1999(1) PLJR210 and (3) Vijoy Narain Jha v. The State of Bihar & others,3 2000(1) BLJ 452.

11. On the other hand, the learned counsel appearing for the State supported the orders passed by the authorit