I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the State and have perused the records of this case.

2. Through this application the petitioners seek employment on compassionate ground as well as other reliefs mentioned in paragraph no. 1 thereof being dependants of some of deceased persons who had been killed in the Shankarbigha carnage in the year 1999 as an assurance was given by the then Chief Minister for providing compensation and a Government job to one person of each of the families of the victims.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners has placed reliance upon a circular/policy-decision of the State Government as contained in letter no. A/Vi.-2610/96 dated 9th August, 2000 addressed to all the Divisional Commissioners and the District Magistrates of the State of Bihar. It is submitted that in the aforesaid circular, apart from grant of compensation of rupees fifty thousand, employment in Class IV on compassionate ground to one member of the victims’ family has been assured. It is submitted that subsequently there was another communication by the State Government to all the Divisional Commissioners as well as the District Magistrates dated 2nd of January, 2001 clarifying and revising the earlier circular, however, in that revised policy also, the provision of grant of employment to one person from the families of the victims in Class IV on compassionate ground was retained. However, it is contended that even though the loss of life of several persons including the family members of the petitioners in Shankarbigha carnage is admitted but despite several attempts made and several representations having been filed in view of the assurance given by none other than the then Chief Minister of the State of Bihar, offer of employment in government to one of the members of the victim family, i.e. the petitioners, is still elusive. Learned counsel for the petitioners fairly admitted at the time of hearing of this writ application that the compensation at the rate of rupees one lac has already been granted to the petitioners in consonance with the revised policy. Thus, he had confined this writ application only for direction to the State authorities to provide employment in Class IV to the petitioners being the dependants of the victims of the aforesaid occurrence.

4. A counter affidavit and two supplementary counter affidavits have been filed on behalf of the State.

5. Mr. Pushkar Narain Shahi, learned Additional Advocate General No. XIV, submitted that though the unfortunate occurrence and the fact that the petitioners are dependants of the victims of the Shankarbigha carnage are not in dispute but at the time of the occurrence the policy of the State Government as contained in letter no. 1701 dated 21st September, 1987 was applicable and according to that circular the dependants of the victims who have been killed are entitled only for rupees twenty thousand by way of compensation. There is no provision for grant of employment to such dependants. Learned counsel submits that the petitioners cannot claim relief on the basis of a circular dated 9th August, 2000 which was a subsequent revision of policy as the same cannot be held to be effective from a retrospective date. That apart, the aforesaid circular came under scrutiny of this Court in C.W.J.C. No. 5808 of 1997 (Dharam Shila Kuer Vs. State of Bihar and others) reported in 2002(3) Patna Law Journal Reports, 497. It is contended that in the aforesaid judgment, the relevant sub-paragraphs (d) and (e) of paragraph no. 1 of the circular, which had empowered the Chief Minister to announce a decision to grant employment to the dependants of the victims of terrorist/extremist attack or caste riot, etc. as per circular dated 9th August, 2000, have been held to suffer from the vice of conferring excessive and uncontrolled discretion in the hands of a single individual and, thus, offend Article 14 of the Constitution and as a consequence thereof have been held to be void and ino