Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India guarantee equality of opportunity in matters relating to employment and prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence, or any of them.

By means of this peti tion, under. Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioner mainly prays for a writ; order or direction in the nature of man damus commanding the respondents to promote him on the post of Junior En gineer from the date persons inferior in merit and junior to him, were promoted as "junior Engineers", with all consequential benefits. Prayer for issuance of a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the orders dated 2-7-1993 and 5-7-1993, contained in Annexures-10 to 12 passed by respondent Nos. 3 to 5 respectively, whereby respondent No. 6 was posted as Junior Engineer at Chandpur, district Bijnor and was directed to take over charge from the petitioner and the petitioner was directed to hand over charge to him, has also been made.

2. The relevant facts of the case as unfolded in the writ petition are that on 13-4-1963, the petitioner, who possessed the requisite educational qualifications High School and I. T. L (Electrical Super visor Course) and fulfilled all other condi tions was appointed Town Incharge of Chandpur, district Bijnor, in U. P. State Electricity Department, on work-charged basis. Petitioner, thereafter, also passed Intermediate examination. It was in the year 1968 that interview for promotion was held by the departmental selection committee in which the petitioner was selected and was placed at serial No. 1 in merit list, besides other candidates whose names have been mentioned in Annexure-1 to the writ petition. On 26-6-1968 the petitioner and other candidates selected for promotion were designated as Asstt. Supervisors. The appointment of the petitioner and other persons were duly sanctioned by the Superintending En gineer on temporary basis vide order dated 7-6-1969. It is stated that the duties of the Town Incharge and Asstt. Supervisor were exactly the same. Subsequently 7 posts of Town Incharges created on 17-12-1968, were allotted to the Electricity Divisions, Moradabad, Badaun and Bijnor vide order dated 7-6-1969 and the petitioner and 6 others were promoted to the posts of Town Incharge from the posts of the work-charged Asstt. Supervisors on the regular basis; but the pay scale as mentioned in the order of promotion was less than what they were getting as Asstt. Supervisors. The petitioner, therefore, made a repre sentation for redesignation of the post of Town Incharge as Asstt. Supervisor. The said representation was favourably recom mended by the S. D. O. It has been claimed that from 22-9-1973 the petitioner has been working as Junior Engineer, reliance has been placed on Annexures-6 and 8 to the writ petition in support of said asser tion. Petitioner has passed departmental examination for promotion to the post of Junior Engineer held in the year 1977, the result of which was declared in the year 1980. In the year 1981, the persons, who were inferior in merit and junior in service, working in work charged establishment, were promoted to the post of Junior En gineers vide order dated 1-10-1980, but the case of the petitioner, who was holding a permanent and regular post was not con sidered for promotion and was not promoted as Junior Engineer. The petitioner as soon as he came to know about the aforesaid order, made a repre sentation praying for his promotion to the post of Junior Engineer on 7-8-1981. Al though the representations filed by the petitioner were not decided but petitioner was deputed to discharge the duties as Junior Engineer in Chandpur Town vide order dated 31-1-1986 and since then he has been continuously working as Junior Engineer. Subsequently the Chandpur circle was divided into two parts i. e. Chandpur East and Chandpur West as nobody was prepared to come to the said Sub-circle of Chandpur, the petitioner was asked and authorised to hold the addition al charge of the other part of the said circle. Since no heed was paid by the com petent authority to the representations filed by the petitioner and the candidates