Patna HC Gives Bihar Government Servant 30 Days To Raise Second ACP Claim Under State Grievance Rules

The petitioner sought a direction granting him second ACP benefits with effect from 1 November 2009, together with consequential arrears, revised pay and pensionary benefits, additional pay for work on a higher post, and interest

He relied on the Full Bench decision in Kamla Nand Thakur v. State of Bihar & Ors., reported at 2025 (2) PLJR 623, concerning the inapplicability of the departmental accounts examination requirement to ACP benefits.

The State objected that the petitioner’s service-related grievance fell within the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019.

Rule 2(c) of the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019 defines a complaint to include service and service-benefit matters, including promotion, ACP/MACP, salary, and retirement benefits; it excludes matters already under consideration by a court.

Rule 3 provides that serving or retired State Government employees may lodge service-related complaints online, with a separate application required for each subject.

The petitioner relied on the Full Bench ruling in Kamla Nand Thakur, which held, among other things, that the departmental accounts examination requirement under Rule 157(3)(J) of the Bihar Board’s Miscellaneous Rules, 1958 does not apply to the grant of ACP benefits under the ACP Rules, 2003.

The Court did not determine the merits or application of that precedent to the petitioner’s claim.

The Court considered the nature of the relief sought and the State’s objection, then found that the 2019 Rules covered the petitioner’s grievances concerning ACP and other service and retirement benefits.

Rather than decide whether the petitioner was substantively entitled to the claimed benefits or whether Kamla Nand Thakur governed his case, the Court directed him to raise all his points through the prescribed complaint process.

It left determination of the complaint to the competent authority under the Rules.

It granted him liberty to file a complaint under the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019 within 30 days, raising all his grounds, and directed the concerned authority to pass orders within the time prescribed by those Rules.