Aparesh Kumar Singh, J. - (1.) HEARD learned counsel for the parties.
(2.) PETITIONER herein has challenged the office order No. 4 dated 21.7.2010 vide memo No. 446(IV) passed by the Director -in -Chief, Health Directorate, Jharkhand, Ranchi where under certain period of absence of the petitioner from 7.6.1998 to 15.9.2004 has been treated as extraordinary leave (without pay) under Rule 180 of the Jharkhand Service Code. Petitioner consequently has also sought payments of arrears of salary from May 1998 to November 2004 along with interest and other claims which are for grant of increment upon pay from 1998 as also the benefits of A.C.P etc. It appears that petitioner had earlier approached this Court in W.P.S. No. 604 of 2008 with a prayer for directing the respondents to release the arrears of salary for the same period i.e. from May 1998 to November 2004. In the said writ petition itself, the respondent - State had appeared and filed their counter affidavit bringing on record the present impugned order bearing memo No. 446(IV) dated 21.7.2010 indicating therein that the aforesaid period was treated as extraordinary leave under Rule 180 of the Jharkhand Service Code and that her services have now been regularized. It was their consistent stand that since the petitioner has not worked during the said period, she is not entitled for the salary for the said period.
(3.) IT would be relevant to point out herein that the said order though on record in the said writ petition itself specifically in respect of the same claim of arrears of salary for the period from May 1998 to November 2004, which has now again been sought for was never challenged by the petitioner till the writ petition was decided by the judgment at Annexure -12 dated 18.12.2012. The relevant extract of the said judgment which have taken into account the aforesaid order dated 21.7.2010, the contention of the parties and the reasons indicated therein are worthy of being quoted herein as such: - - "However, it appears that office order -04 under Memo No. 446(IV) dated 21.07.2010, which was passed by the Director -in -Chief, Health Directorate, Jharkhand, Ranchi, has not been challenged by the petitioner in the present writ petition. From perusal of the office order, it appears that she was transferred and relieved from Thethai Tanger, Gumla in May, 1998, but she did not join at her transferred place of posting at Purnea and kept on recording her attendance at Thethai Tanger, Gumla without any authority and despite being objected by the In -charge Medical Officer, Thethai Tanger, Gumla through his letter No. 189 dated 08.09.2001. The Communication of the Civil Surgeon, Purnea dated 28.11.2002 has been taken into account where he had reported that the petitioner had never joined at her transferred place of posting at Purnea and as such, by his letter dated 23.10.2002, the service book and last pay certificate etc. were returned to Civil Surgeon, Gumla. Thereafter, the petitioner was posted at Lohardaga, but their being no post available in the category of Grade A Nurse, she was finally posted by letter dated 03.11.2004 at Referral Hospital, Mandar, Ranchi where she has submitted her joining on 05.11.2004. The Director -in -Chief, Health Services, Ranchi in the reasoned order, has also recorded that even on asking her to give her show cause vide letter dated 26.08.2006, she did not appear in the office of Director in Chief, which was fixed on 30.11.2006. In the background of the aforesaid findings of the facts recorded by him, he has proceeded to pass an order as referred above by granting extraordinary leave to the petitioner under Rule 180 of the Jharkhand Service Code for the period w.e.f. 07.06.1998 to 15.09.2004. As already stated hereinabove, the said order has not been challenged. Finding of facts relating to the voluntarily absence of the petitioner for the period in question have been recorded by the authority concerned. From the order passed in Cont. Case (Civil) 855 of 2001 dated 15.07.2002, it further appears that petitioner was granted liberty to claim her salary from June 1998 before the appropriate Government, where she has been transferred i.e. from the State of Bihar where the district of Purnea now lies after bifurcation of the State. In this writ petition, petitioner has again come before this court against the authorities of Health Department, State of Jharkhand and not against the authorities of State of Bihar. From the facts narrated hereinabove, it also appears that petitioner has never reported her joining at Purnea in June 1998 and deliberately kept on making her attendance at her original place of posting Thethai Tanger, Gumla contrary to the order of the respondent authorities. For the complication which ensued thereafter, the petitioner is primarily responsible for that. Thereafter also she did not join and remained voluntarily absent away from her place of posting. In these circumstances, the Director in Chief, Health Services, Government of Jharkhand, Ranchi has taken sympathetic view by granting her extraordinary leave under Rule 180 of the Jharkhand Service Code thereby benefiting her from rigours of break in service for the period of absence from service. However, the petitioner has never challenged the reasoned order dated 20.07.2010. Therefore, she is not entitled to claim her salary for such period for which extraordinary leave has now been sanctioned. In the totality of the facts and circumstances, which have been discussed hereinabove, I do not find any merit in this writ petition, which is accordingly, dismissed".;