A Full Bench of the Hon'ble Patna High Court in the case of Rita Mishra & Ors. v. Director, Primary Education, Bihar & Ors. AIR 1988 Patna 26 has dealt with appointment in the education department claiming salary although the letter of appointment was forged, fraudulent or illegal. The Full Bench declined to grant such claim and held that "the right to salary stricto sensu springs from a legal right to validly hold the post for which salary is claimed. It is a right consequential to a valid appointment to such post. Therefore, where the very root is non-existent, there cannot subsist a branch thereof in the shape of a claim to salary. The rights to salary, pension and other service benefits are entirely statutory in nature in public service. Therefore, these rights, including the right to salary, spring from a valid and legal appointment to the post. Once it is found that the very appointment is illegal and is non est in the eye of law, no statutory entitlement for salary or consequential rights of pension and other monetary benefits can arise."
