ORAL JUDGMENT

(Per: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV ROY)

Date : 08-05-2023 Heard Mr. Amarnath Jha, the appellant who has appeared in person.

2. The present appeal has been preferred against the order dated 07.05.2019 passed by the learned Single Judge in C.W.J.C. No.17632 of 2012 by which the said writ petition was dismissed holding that the denial of the claim of the petitioner-appellant for grant of his 1st and 2nd time bound promotions as well as annual increment of pay which were withdrawn by the respondents need no interference.

3. The matrix of facts giving rise to the present appeal is/are as follows:-

4. The petitioner-appellant was appointed as an Auditor on 03.12.1977 and was further made Senior Auditor, Class-II effective from 01.05.1980 after the government decided to merge the post of Auditor with that of the Senior Auditor, Class-II on which post, he retired on

31.12.2011.

5. As per his service condition, the annual increment was depending on the passing of the “Hindi Noting and Drafting Examination” conducted by the Rajbhasha Department, Government of Bihar. Further, for the confirmation and promotion to the post of Senior Auditor, he was required to pass departmental examination consisting of four papers, the details of which are as follows:-

(i) service condition and allied matters;

(ii) account and financial rule;

(iii) audit and account;

(iv) (a) budget and constitution ( b) works account.

6. The petitioner-appellant got the annual increment vide office order no. 420 dated 23.07.1987 which was also entered in his service book. The petitioner-appellant at the particular time was posted with the office of Deputy Controller of Account, Darbhanga Division. Later, it came to notice of the Chief Controller of Accounts that wrong entry has been made in the service book and accordingly, the service book was requisitioned for verification which was dispatched through special messenger. However, during the transit, his service book was stolen from the special messenger which led to the lodging of the FIR with the Kotwali Police Station, Patna.

7. Later, the service book of the petitioner-

appellant was reconstructed and sent to the office of District Accounts Officer, Muzaffarpur for verification and fixation. At the relevant period, the petitioner-appellant was posted in the office of the Deputy Controller of Account, Tirhut Division, Muzuffarpur (henceforth for short ‘the office’).

8. It later came to notice from the issue register maintained in ‘the office’ that the service book was received by the petitioner-appellant himself who also put in his signature in the issue register. However, when the same was demanded by ‘the office’, he chose not to submit it. The respondent-authority left with no option had to stop his annual increment of pay and immediately thereafter, the petitioner- appellant submitted his service book on 04.02.1990. In between, he kept the same in an unauthorized manner. Thereafter it came to the notice of ‘the office’ that in the re-constructed service book, fraudulent entry has been made regarding the petitioner- appellant having passed the departmental examination as well as the ‘Hindi Noting and Drafting Examination’.

9. So far as the passing of the departmental examination is concerned, in the service book, it was recorded as follows:-

“by the order of the Chief Controller of Account, I visited the Board of Revenue and verified the result of the Departmental examination of Accounts and Audit, checked and found that he has been declared passed in higher standard in all the papers of all the subject"

10. Further, so far as the passing of ‘Hindi Noting and Drafting Examination’ is concerned, in the re- constructed service book, the following incorporation was made:

“by the order of Chief Controller of Account. I visited the Rajbhasha Vibhag and verified the result of Hindi Noting and Drafting and found that he has been declared passed in higher standard”

11. It was found to be forged and fabricated entries in re-co