V. BHASKARA RAO, J.

( 1 ) THIS Writ Petition is filed by the petitioners, who are working as Senior Purchase Officers in the 1st respondent s office at Hyderabad. The petitioners are Non-Engineering Graduates. They were originally appointed in the Purchase Department and promoted from time to time. The next promotion post to the petitioners is the Purchase Manager. The 1st respondent-Corporation has got a promotional policy. In case of Engineering Graduates the requirement to get promotion is five years service as Senior Purchase Officer, whereas for the non-engineering graduate Senior Purchase Officers the requirement is five years service plus Post Graduation Degree. Apart from the petitioners, who are non-engineering graduates, there are also Engineering Graduates, working in the Purchase Department. They were recruited directly to the post of the Purchase Officer (Trainees ). The functions performed in the Purchaser Department by the Petitioners as well as the Engineering Graduates are one and the same. As such, there cannot be, according to the learned counsel, any differentiation between the same category of employees in the matter of promotion. Earlier also the 1st respondent-Corporation had a rule fixing seven years experience to the Non-Engineering Graduates and five years experience to the Engineering Graduates for promotion to the post of Senior Purchase Officer. That rule was challenged in this Court in W. P. No. 6265/82 as discriminatory. This Court by its judgment dated 9/04/1987 directed the 1st respondent-Corporation to promote the non-Engineering Graduates on par with the Engineering Graduates without insisting on the formality of putting in a minimum service of seven years in the lower grade, and struck down that rule of the 1st respondent-Corporation. Further the petitioners were also directed to be given the benefit of promotion with retrospective effect from the date they became eligible for being promoted. The appeal filed by the Corporation was admitted but no stay was granted. Thus, the Non-Engineering Graduates were promoted without insisting on the formality of putting in seven years service in the lower grade. Now, when the petitioners further promotion to the post of Purchase Manager is due, the 1st respondent-Corporation has once again declined to promote them on the ground that they do not possess the qualification of Post Graduation, which according to the petitioners, is discriminatory, arbitrary and has no nexus to the nature of duties to be performed. The petitioners further submit that the said rule is in violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India and is, therefore, liable to be struck down and consequently the petitioners seek a direction to the respondents to promote them as Purchaser Managers without insisting on the formality of Post Graduation Qualification.

( 2 ) THE 1st respondent-Corporation filed a counter contending, inter alia, that it is open to the Corporation to prescribe educational qualifications for various posts, depending upon the exigencies and the requirements of the concerned posts. The requirement of the qualification, viz. , Post-Graduation, for promotion to the post of Purchaser Manager from the post of Senior Purchase Officer is prescribed by the Corporation in the best interest of the Corporation to have able persons. Therefore, the same is not in violation of any rule or regulation. The petitioners cannot question the power of the Management in prescribing the Post Graduation qualification for promotion to the post of Purchase Manager. The qualification for the post of Purchase Manager is a degree in B. E. , or its equivalent or any Post Graduation in any Non-Engineering Faculties. The Corporation deals in manufacture of highly technical equipment of sophisticated nature in electronic goods. So, the petitioners herein cannot compare themselves to be equivalent with the persons possessing B. E. , degree or its equivalent qualification. The kn

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