ORDER

The question before this Court in Common Cause v. Union of India and Ors.1, was whether the allotments of retail outlets for petroleum products (Petrol Pumps) were illegal and as such liable to the quashed. This Court by the judgment dated September 25, 1996 came to the conclusion that the allotments made by Capt. Satish Sharma were arbitrary, discriminatory, mala fide, wholly illegal and as such were liable to be quashed. This Court reached the said findings on the following reasoning :

"All the 15 allotments - discussed above - have been made by the Minister in a stereotyped manner. The applications have not been officially received by the Petroleum Ministry. There is no receipt - entry on any of the applications. The applicants seem to have approached the Minister directly. None of the applications have been dealt with in any of the branches of the Ministry. There is nothing on the record to indicate that the Minister kept any criteria in view while making the allotments. How the applicants came to know about the availability of the petrol pumps is not known. No advertisement was made to invite the applications. There is nothing on the record to show that any other method of