Order

These special leave petitions arise from the judgment and order of the Division Bench of the Madras High Court dated March 7, 1996 made in writ petition Nos. 17490 and batch and 147/96 and batch. The admitted facts are that the petitioners are exporters of readymade garments to divers countries. The export and import is governed by Foreign Trade Development Regulations Act, 1992. The Government of India, Ministry of Commerce evolved 1992-93 Export and Import Policy declaring that the export policy to augment productivity, modernization and competi­tiveness of the Indian agriculture industry and service. For the year 1994-95, export policy for the readymade garments was notified in notification No. 1-29-93 dated September 4, 1993. The policy classi­fied allotment under heads, namely, (a) Past Performance Entitlement (for short, ‘PPE’); (b) Manufacturer Export Entitlement (for short, ‘MEE’); and (c) Non-quota Exporters Entitlement (for short, ‘NQE’), The Uruguay round of negotiations of the GATT received final approval of the negotiations incorporating separate agreements to diverse sectors including the Textile and Clothing sector. The latter is known as the Agreement on Textil