- (1.) This judgment will. dispose of Letters Patent Appeals Nos. 618 and 619 of 1975, which are directed against the same judgment of a learned single Judge dated Nov. 19, 1975, by which the two writ petitions, namely, Civil Writ Petition No. 3552 of 1974 and Civil Writ Petition No. 1926 of 1973, were dismissed.
(2.) The important question of law involved in the two writ petitions is whether the decision of the Punjab State Electricity Board, (hereinafter to be called the Board), as contained in Annexure R. 1/2, dated January 12, 1965, whereby it was decided that the quota of the diploma-holder Line Superintendents for the purpose of promotion to the posts of Junior Engieers will not be less than 40 per cent. and the subsequent decision, dated June 20, 1974, as contained in Annexure P. 8, whereby the quota of non- diploma-holder Line Superintendents to the posts of Junior Engineers was decided not to exceed 33 per cent, is valid and constitutional and is not hit by Arts. 14 and 16 of the Constitution. According to the decision of the learned single Judge, such a decision was perfectly valid. The same was not hit by the vice of unreasonable discrimination and did not suffer from infraction of equality of opportunity before law. Its correctness has been challenged on the basis of the ratio of the decision of their Lordships of the Supreme Court in Mohd. Shujat Ali v. Union of India, 1974 AIR(SC) 1631. Before embarking upon the legal and constitutional aspect of the question involved, a brief enumeration of the facts is necessary.
(3.) In Civil Writ Petition No. 3552 of 1974, the nine petitioners are non- diploma-holders who were promoted as Line Superintendents along with the private respondents and had been appointed by the P. W. D. (Electricity Branch). At the time of the formation of the Board in 1959, they were holding substantial ranks. On Nov. 15, 1962, the Board prescribed qualifications for appointment to the posts of Line Superintendents, Grade-II, in the scale of Rs. 125-10-225. The qualifications prescribed in sub-paras (a) and (d) of the Order dated 15th of Nov. 1962 (Annexure P. 2), covered the diploma-holders in Electrical Engineering or Section A Examination of the Institute of Engineers with Elementary Electrical Engineering as optional subject. The qualifications as embodied in sub-paras (b) and (c) of the abovesaid Order, pertained to non-diplomaholders. The Line Superintendents were either recruited directly from the open market or were promoted from the posts of Linemen. On December, 28, 1964, (Annexure R. 1/2), it was decided by the Board that the diploma- holder Line Superintendents with five years experience and non-diploma-holders with ten years experience will be entitled to be promoted to the posts of Junior Engineers.;