N ABDUL BASHEER Vs. K K KARUNAKARAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals by graduate Excise Inspectors are directed against the judgment and order dated 20 March, 1981 of the High Court of Kerala holding that the amendment to Special Rule 2of the Kerala Excise and Prohibition Subordinate Service Rules is ultra vires.

(2.) The writ petitions were filed by nongraduate Excise Inspectors alleging that the amendment to Special Rule 2 of the aforesaid Rules violates Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution inasmuch as an invidious discrimination has been made between graduates and non-graduates by prescribing a ratio between them in the matter of promotion from the post of Excise Preventive Officer to that of Second Grade Excise Inspectors. As all the cases have proceeded on a common factual basis, we shall take up the appeal arising out of 0. P. 3760 of 1978 for the purpose of this judgment.

(3.) The petitioner in O.P. 3760 of 1978 joined the post of Excise Guard on 2 April, 1960. He was promoted on 12 January, 1966 as Excise Preventive Officer. In the list of Preventive Officers in the Excise Department as on 1 August, 1970 he was ranked No. 131 while the third respondent was ranked at number 390. The third respondent was promoted earlier although he was junior to the petitioner. This was on the ground that he was a graduate and the petitioner was a non-graduate. The petitioner contended that as graduates and non-graduates were both regarded as eligible for promotion to the post of Second Grade Excise Inspectors no differentiation should have been made between them when prescribing a rule of quota for promotion. The writ petition was heard by a learned Single Judge, who held that the amendment to Special Rule 2 was violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. It may be noted that the original Special Rule 2 of the Special Rules for the Kerala Excise and Prohibition Subordinate Service was amended by G. 0. P. No. 79/78/TD dated 23 June, 1978 whereby the ratio 1:3 between graduate and nongraduates was introduced into the Special Rules in the matter of promotion from the category of Excise Preventive Officers to that of Second Grade Excise Inspectors. The amendment was deemed to have come into force retrospectively from 9 September, 1974 when the Special Rules were brought in. The learned single Judge directed the respondents in the case to cause the Departmental Promotion Committee to be convened within two months to prepare a select list in order that promotions on a regular basis could be made.