The Hindu : SC allows different treatment on qualification basis

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Thursday, Feb 19, 2004

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SC allows different treatment on qualification basis

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 18. The Supreme Court has held that a State Government can fix separate quota of promotion for degree holders, diploma holders and certificate holders on the basis of educational qualification and that such differential treatment was not unconstitutional.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice S.H. Kapadia, gave this ruling while upholding the Kerala Public Health Engineering Service Rules giving preference to degree holders over diploma holders and the latter over certificate holders in promotions.

The Judges held that possession of a higher qualification could be treated differently in the service rules and that such a treatment could not be said to be hit by Article 14 of the Constitution (equality before law). "It is well settled that classification on the basis of educational qualification is a reasonable one and satisfies the doctrine of equality."

The Bench said that the State as an employer was entitled to fix separate quota of promotion for different educational qualification holders in exercise of its rule making power under Article 309 (recruitment and conditions of service of persons serving the Union or a State) of the Constitution.

It said: "The State, may therefore, in our opinion, cannot be said to have acted arbitrarily by giving an option to such diploma holders who acquired a higher qualification so as to enable them to either opt for promotion in the category of degree holders or diploma holder."

The degree holders had challenged the decision of the Kerala Government to allow diploma holders to compete with them after acquiring an equivalent degree. The High Court held that framing of such rules was ultra vires the Constitution and quashed the same. The appeals were directed against this judgment.

Disposing of the appeals, the Bench held that the impugned judgments could not be sustained and set aside the same.

The Bench directed that the cases of all the employees concerned be considered strictly in terms of the extant rules and such a direction would also govern the appeal preferred by the Kerala Government.

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