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Petitioners seek to challenge the proceedings of the first respondent in B.P.Ms.No.97 dated 04.10.1999 and the consequential orders of the second, third and fourth respondents dated 30.11.1999, 20.10.1999 and 25.10.1999, and thereby reverting the petitioners from the redesignated post of Assistant Drillers to Helpers (Rig) and reducing their scale of pay with effect from 02.01.1998, apart from the order recovering the difference paid from 02.01.1998. The petitioners also seek for a consequential direction to the respondents to redesignate them as Assistant Drillers as from the date of such redesignation already made with consequential benefits, as was done in the case of other Helpers (Rig), who were holding ITI Certificate.

"3.Helpers/Rig Helpers : The Board hereby orders that the post of Rig Helper be redesignated as Assistant Driller with the scale of pay of Rs.950-1500 and the present incumbents holding the post of Rig Helpers with the I.T.I.qualification be accommodated in the redesignated post. For the Rig Helpers who do not possess I.T.I. qualifications, relevant regulations prescribing the educational qualification may be relaxed in their favour and they may be accommodated in the redesignated post from the date of utilisation of the redesignated posts."

12. Similar view was taken by another Division Bench, in its judgment dated 25.04.1990 in W.A.No.347 of 1990, wherein the judgment reported in 1982 MLJ 294 was also followed. In fact, in the judgment reported in 1979 (I) LLJ 356 (District Registrar, Palghat v. M.B. Koyyakutty), the Hon'ble Supreme Court dealt with a case, where the question posed for consideration was, "whether the exemption from qualification granted to a Government employee removing the bar from being appointed to the Ministerial service would enure for all purposes or whether it is confined only to the first entry into the service?". That was a case, where the first respondent therein was appointed as a Lower Division Clerk, after granting him exemption from possessing the minimum general educational qualification, namely, SSLC. When for the higher post of Upper Division Clerk seniority alone was the criterion and when the first respondent therein was not even considered for the higher post, the Writ Petition came to be moved before the Kerala High Court and, on its failure before a single Judge, an appeal was preferred before a Division Bench, which reversed the order of the learned single Judge and held that the first respondent therein was eligible for promotion as an Upper Division Clerk. When the matter was taken up by the State to the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the Supreme Court was also pleased to confirm the decision of the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court. Thus, the consistent view, on this aspect, is that where the qualification prescribed for the post at entry point as well as for the next higher post was one and the same and if exemption had been granted for the person at the entry level, such an exemption in respect of the very same qualification would hold good, even for the higher post as well. The contrary view expressed by a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court reported in 1995 (I) LLJ 619, which is cited on behalf of the first respondent, cannot, therefore, be applied to the case on hand. If the abov e said legal position is clear and when once in B.P.No.113 dated 07.04.1987 the possession of qualification of I.T.I. for the post of Rig Helper in respect of the petitioners came to be relaxed in order to regularise them in their posts, it will have to be held that the said relaxation would enure to their benefit, when they were considered for the post of Assistant Driller, at the time when the post of Rig Helper came to be redesignated as Assistant Driller under B.P.Ms.No.547 dated 04.12.1997. The subsequent action of the second respondent in attempting to reverse the said position in the impugned B.P.No.97 dated 04.10.1999 cannot, therefore, be sustained. Further, in B.P.Ms.No.547 dated 04.12.1997, while redesignating the petitioners from the posts of Rig Helpers as Assistant Drillers, the first respondent Board, having taken a conscious decision to pass a further order of relaxation in their favour wherever they did not possess the I.T.I.qualification, it is too late in the day for the first respondent to suddenly turn around under the impugned B.P.Ms.No.97 dated 04.10.1999 without any reasoning or justification to withdraw from the said position and thereby attempt to revert the petitioners to the posts of Rig Helpers.