Judgment

VENKATARAMIAH, J. :- The above appeals arise out of three petitions filed under Art. 226 of the Constitution bearing Writ Petitions 1367, 1389 and 1448 of 1973 on the file of the High Court of Madras. The appellant V. Balasubramaniam was the petitioner in Writ Petition 1389 of 1973 and S. Swaminathan and S. Suruli were the petitioners in the other two writ petitions. All of them were working as Supervisors in the Engineering Subordinate Service of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board). The Board was established under the Tamil Nadu State Housing Board Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The posts of Assistant Engineers (now called as Assistant Executive Engineers) in the Engineering Officers Service of the Board were to be filled up either by direct recruitment or by promotion from the cadre of Junior Engineers possessing the qualifications prescribed for a Junior Engineer or from the cadres of Supervisors, Head Draftsmen and Draftsmen Grade-I. According to the appellants the regulations framed by the Board which had received the approval of the State Government prescribed that in order to be eligible to be promoted to the cadre of