Judgment

DAS GUPTA, J. : The petitioner, an Income-tax Officer in the service of the Government of India has filed this petition for protection of his fundamental rights under Art. 14 and Art. 16 of the Constitution which he claims to have been violated by the respondent, the Union of India. The petitioner who was appointed an Income-tax Inspector in the Income-tax Department of the Government of India in 1943 became an Income-tax Officer in the same department on promotion in 1946. It appears that the Income-tax services were reconstituted by an order of the Government of India, dated September 29th, 1944, and later on In 1953, S. 5 of the Income-tax Act was amended in accordance with this decision to reconstitute. One of the features of the reconstitution was that in place of the one class of Income-tax Officers, two classes came into existence, one consisting of Income-tax Officers of Class I service and the other class in which all the then existing Income-tax Officers were placed forming the Class II Officers. Class I Officers were eligible to be promoted to the higher post of Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners ; Class 11 Officers would not however be eligible for direct