S.S.SANDHAWALIA, J.

1. Whether a public servant is entitled to a writ of mandamus for the payment of salary to him for work done despite the fact that his letter of appointment was forged, fraudulent or an illegal one - is the significant question in this set of 13 connected writ petitions referred for an authoritative decision to the Full Bench. Equally at issue is some cleavage of judicial opinion on this point within this Court.

2. The broad matrix of relevant facts may be noticed from C.W.J.C. No. 6061 of 1985, (Ram Mohan Mandal V/s. State of Bihar) with a brief reference to those in C.W.J.C. No. 4813 of 1985, (Rita Mishra V/s. Director, Primary Education) which now remain for adjudication as the other cases were withdrawn at the close of arguments. It emerges from the pleadings that the erstwhile district of Santhal Praganas was carved into four districts including that of Sahebganj. At the material time in 1981-83 the District Superintendent of Education, Sahebganj was one Shri Bhola Ram to whom detailed reference follows hereinafter. In exercise of the powers under S.8 of the Bihar Government Elementary Schools (Take Over and Control) Act, 1976 the Government issued