Judgment

GROVER, J.:- These appeals by special leave are from a judgment of a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court affirming the decision of a learned single Judge who had dismissed the writ petitions of the appellants.

2. The appellant in C. A. 1789/69 entered service as a teacher in a private aided school on March 14, 1946. Both the appellants in C. A. 1790/69 had joined service originally as teachers in aided schools but they entered Government school service on August 17, 1958 and December 13, 1948 respectively. Similarly in C. A. 1791/69 the appellant joined government service as a teacher and attained the age of 55 on July 2, 1968.

3. It appears that on November 22, 1965 all associations of Government and private aided school teachers of which the appellants were members submitted a memorandum to the Government making various demands. One of these (No. 11) was that the age of retirement of school teachers should be raised to 60 years. On July 14, 1966 the Government issued an order by which the age of retirement was raised from 55 to 58 years. Paragraph 8 of this order was in the following terms:-

"The age of retirement of at teachers including Head Masters of aided schools wi