In Brief
The case concerns a dispute over qualifications required for promotion to the post of Head Assistant in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. The Chief Justice issued an order in 2008 prescribing graduation as a mandatory qualification for such promotion. Some non-graduate senior assistants challenged this order, arguing it violated the constitutional right to equality by discriminating within a homogenous class. The Supreme Court upheld the order, holding that educational qualifications constitute a valid and reasonable basis for classification that does not breach Articles 14 or 16. Those respondents already promoted were not reverted but their seniority was recalculated based on when they acquired the necessary qualification, not their date of promotion.
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