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Showing contexts for: Tracer in Page No.# 1/23 vs The State Of Assam on 14 October, 2025Matching Fragments
18. In the case of P. Narasinga Rao(supra), the issue before the Hon'ble Supreme Court was - the respondent was employed as a Tracer in the Engineering Department in the erstwhile Hyderabad State where the cadre of Tracers consisted of both matriculates as well as non-matriculates and no distinction was made between them. As a result of the re-organization of States in 1956, he was allotted to the appellant Mysore State where the cadre of Tracers was reorganised into two, one consisting of matriculate Tracers in a higher scale of pay and the other of non-matriculates in a lower scale. The respondent was given the option either to remain in his old Hyderabad scale of pay or to accept the new scale applicable to non-matriculates. He refused to exercise the option and claimed that the cadre of Tracers should not have been divided into two grades and that no distinction should have been made between matriculates and non-matriculates. His claim was rejected by the Superintending Engineer on March 19, 1958 and he filed a writ petition in the High Court praying that the order of the Superintending Engineer be quashed and for the Page No.# 23/23 issue of writ in the nature, of mandamus to fix his pay in the scale prescribed for matriculate Tracers. The High Court allowed the petition, holding that there was no valid reason for making a distinction as both matriculate and non- matriculate Tracers were doing the same kind of work and the distinction made was in violation of Arts. 14 and 16 of the Constitution. On appeal, Hon'ble Supreme Court has held as under:-
"In our opinion, therefore, higher educational qualifications such as success in the S.S.L.C. examination are relevant considerations for fixing a higher pay scale for tracers who have passed the S.S.L.C. examination and the classification of two grades of tracers in the new Mysore State, one for matriculate tracers with a higher pay scale and the other for non-matriculate tracers with a lower pay scale is not violative of Arts. 14 or 16 of the Constitution."