JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J.:—These two sister appeals have gained access to this Court by certificate under Article 133 and project a service dispute between the Army and civilian wings (both engineers) of the Survey of India. The constitutional missiles used, with success, in the encounter in the High Court by the civilians to shoot down the military mens preferential claims under the relevant service rules, are Articles 14 and 16. And here, in this Court, the Army wing is fighting back to repulse the civilian wing by defusing the warhead of these two fundamental rights. Military imagery vivifies the litigative havoc when sectors of our public services go to battle against each other, though there is so much else to wage war against in the service of the people.

2. A narration of facts falling within a short compass will unfold the real issue, revolving round the salary, seniority and de facto promotional disparity inter se, which has sparked off the forensic war. The Union of India, one of the appellants, supports the stand of the military sector of the Survey Service, if we may so designate it. A survey of the story of this conflict suggests the sombre thought the unending litigati