Judgment

JASWANT SINGH, J. :- This judgment shall dispose of Appeals Nos. 883 and 898 to 905 of 1975 which are directed against the common judgment dated February 20, 1975 of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore dismissing Writ Petitions Nos. 5825, 5818, 5820, 5822 to 5824, 5828 and 5829 of 1974 on ground that the appellants had no right to maintain the same.

2. The circumstances leading to these appeals are : The appellants held the posts of Shambogues on hereditary basis under the Mysore Village Offices Act, 1908. In writ petition No. 133 of 1959 entitled Gazula Dasaratha Rama Rao v. State of A. P., (1961) 2 SCR 931 decided on December 6, 1960, this Court held that a law which recognised the custom by which a preferential right to an office vested in the members of a particular family was not consistent with the fundamental right guaranteed by Article 16 of the Constitution; that a custom which is recognised by law with regard to a hereditary office must yield to a fundamental right and Section 6 (1) of the Madras Hereditary Village Offices Act III of 1895 in so far as it made discrimination on the ground of descent only was violative of the fundamental right under Article 16 (