years of service as a consequence of which he lost his seniority over Respondents 2 and 3. Thereafter he has made the grievance about upgrading the scale of pay of Lecturer, Mining in 1960, giving Respondent 3 Class I scale of pay in 1961, his appointment to the post of Principal, Orissa School of Mining Engineering, Keonjhar done by the Public Service Commission in 1962, his appointment as Joint Director with effect from 1968 and finally his appointment as Director of Technical Education and Training in 1980. As noted earlier, the writ petition was filed in the High Court in 1980 which subsequently stood transferred to SAT. By then more than two decades had elapsed since the appellant's entry to the service. Appointment to higher posts of Principal of the School of Mining Engineering, Joint Director of Industries and Director of Industries were made in consultation with the Public Service Commission and the appellant's name was sent to the Commission when the appointments to the posts of Joint Director and Director were considered. The Commission did not consider him suitable for appointment to the said posts. For the post of Principal, the appellant was not possessed of the prescribed qualification of a degree in Mining Engineering and therefore, the question of considering him for appointment did not arise. It cannot be disputed that the State Government had the power to prescribe proper qualification for the post keeping in view the job requirement, nature of work to be handled by the holder of the post and other relevant factors. Therefore, no exception could be taken to the order of the State Government prescribing a degree in Mining Engineering as
