JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J.:—This is a hard case which cannot persuade us to make bad law: therefore, the petition has to fail.

2. The petitioners are Central employees of the Customs Department who complain that they find themselves below Customs Officers employed by the Tripura Princely State, who came into the service of the Central Government (Customs Department), on the Princely State being integrated with the Union of India. The reason for the former employees of the Tripura State being given seniority over the petitioners is that they have longer confirmed service. The petitioners contention is that continuous officiating service should be the guideline and not the length of service after confirmation. These are matters of policy which Government must have discretion to adopt. Indeed, Government did change its policy from time to time after making an assessment of the situation with reference to administrative exigencies and overall justice. Unless something arbitrary, perverse, mala fide or extraneous or like factor, is imported into the policy of the Government, the Court cannot predicate a breach of Article 16. We are unable to see any such vitiating factor. We may also add