S. B. SINHA, C. J.

( 1 ) AN interesting question, as regarding interpretation of an eligibility clause for holding the post of Chief General Manager (hereinafter referred to as cgm for the sake of brevity) in A. P. Industrial development Corporation, Hyderabad (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation for the sake of brevity), has been raised in these appeals. The said clause reads thus:"qualifications and experience for all general Managers and Deputy general Managers: education: at least I Class Degree in Engineering or Technology or a 1 Class Master s degree in Science, with MBA qualifications. Experience: at least 15/12 years experience for gm/dgm in an Industrial organisation of repute or in a financial Consultancy Organisation in technical and/or Finance and/or project Appraisal work in responsible positions. Dynamism and result oriented capacity to work. "

( 2 ) IT is not in dispute that the appellants were promoted to the post of Deputy general Manager. They do not have any m. B. A. qualification. Their cases for promotion to the post of CGM, the re- designated post of the General Manager, were not considered on the ground that they do not hold M. B. A. qualification.

( 3 ) THE question, which arises before us, is as to whether the comma after the word i Class Masters Degree in Science and m. B. A. qualifications mean that an M. B. A. qualification is necessary irrespective of the fact that the candidates hold the Degree in engineering or Technology? In other words, the question raised centres around the comma between I Class Masters Degree in science and with M. B. A, qualification.

( 4 ) THE learned Single Judge held that the degree in M. B. A. is an essential qualification for all.

( 5 ) MR. Nuty Rammohan Rao, as also mr. C. V. Mohan Reddy, the learned counsel appearing for the appellants, inter alia submitted that the entire clause has to be read as a whole inasmuch as educational qualification of M. B. A. , which is a professional qualification, would be necessary only for those who do no t hold the same. The learned Counsel would contend that both Engineering and M. B. A. Degrees being professional qualifications, the appellants cannot be asked to possess two professional qualifications. It was submitted that, in any event, as the Board of directors of the Company itself had all along interpreted the same to mean that only those holding general qualification would be required to possess or require possessing M. B. A. , the same interpretation should prevail. Alternatively, it was urged that the word or after the word technology must be read conjunctively and not disjunctively. In support of the said contention, the learned Counsel relied on the decisions of the Supreme Court in Mohd. Shabbir vs. State of Maharashtra and Delhi municipality vs. Tek Clwnd.

( 6 ) MR. Subba Reddy, the learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the 3rd respondent, on the other hand, submit that the comma used in the clause has a great significance and in this connection he has drawn our attention to its definition as contained in Oxford Dictionary.

( 7 ) MR. Shastri, the learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the writ petitioners, adopted the submission of Mr. Subbareddy. He, however, relied upon a decision of this court in N. B. Ramesh vs. Krishna Reddy.

( 8 ) IN Oxford Dictionary the meaning of comma is stated as follows:"comma: n. 1 a punctuation mark (,) indicating a pause between parts of a sentence, or dividing items in a list, string of figures, etc. 2. Mus. A definite minute interval or difference of pitch. "in the said dictionary, the author while dealing with the "punctuation Marks" (Appendix-VIII) explained about comma , which reads:"5. Comma (,) 5. 1 Use of the comma is more difficult to describe that other punctuation marks, and there is much variation in practice. Essentially, its role is to give detail to the structure of sentences, especially longer ones, and make their meaning clear. Too many commas

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