Service grievances must be pursued before the competent authority under Bihar’s 2019 Grievance Redressal Rules.

The petitioner, Shashi Priya Verma, challenged Office Order/Memo No. 7189 dated 27 December 2024 and Letter No. 1435 dated 16 March 2026 issued by the Labour Commissioner.

These orders treated the period from 9 November 2023 to 14 March 2024 as Extraordinary Leave, although the petitioner claimed that the competent authority, including the Hon’ble Minister, had approved treatment of that period as a “waiting for posting period”.

The petitioner sought quashing of the impugned orders, continuity of service, consequential service benefits, arrears of salary, revision of retiral benefits, and interest.

The State raised a preliminary objection that the petitioner had an alternative remedy under the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019.

Whether the petitioner’s grievance concerning the treatment of a period as Extraordinary Leave, and the consequential claim for service and retiral benefits, was required to be pursued initially under the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019.

Whether the writ petition should be disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to file a complaint before the competent authority under the 2019 Rules.

The Court applied the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019. Rule 2(c) defines “complaint” to include matters relating to government service and service benefits, including approval of leave, salary during leave, allowances, and retirement benefits such as pension, gratuity, leave encashment and provident fund; however, matters relating to transfer/posting/deputation, disciplinary or departmental action, and matters already under judicial consideration are excluded.

Rule 3 prescribes an online procedure whereby serving or retired State Government employees may file complaints concerning service matters or retirement benefits, generally restricting each application to one subject.

The Court consequently directed the petitioner to pursue the statutory grievance-redressal mechanism before invoking further judicial intervention.

The Court noted that the petitioner’s grievance concerned the classification of a period of absence/availability as Extraordinary Leave rather than as a waiting-for-posting period, together with consequential salary, continuity-of-service and retiral benefits.

Such matters substantially fell within the categories of leave, salary during leave and service or retirement benefits contemplated by Rule 2(c).

Since the 2019 Rules provided a specific procedure for raising such service grievances under Rule 3, and no exclusion applicable to the petitioner’s claim was identified, the Court accepted the State’s preliminary objection and considered it appropriate for the petitioner to first approach the concerned authority through that mechanism.

It directed the petitioner to file a complaint under the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019 within 30 days, and directed the concerned authority to decide the complaint within the time prescribed by those Rules.

The writ petition was accordingly disposed of with these directions.