JUDGMENT

Bhan, J.-These sets of appeal arise from a common judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Andhra Pradesh whereby the said High Court has rejected the appellants challenge to the fixation of rates of royalty on bamboo and hardwood to the paper industry in Andhra Pradesh. For the sake of convenience, we would refer to the facts and contentions in Civil Appeal Nos. 7519-20 of 1995 arising from Writ Appeal No. 591 of 1984 and Writ Petition No. 3927 of 1987 filed by Sree Rayalaseema paper Mills Ltd. It was stated by the counsel for both the parties before us, as was done before the High Court, that these appeals can be taken as representative of the facts and contentions in all the appeals.

2. Relevant facts for determining the points raised in these appeals are :

Till the year 1975 there were only two Paper Mills in the State of Andhra Pradesh, namely, (1) Sirpur Paper Mills, and (2) Andhra Pradesh, Paper Mills Ltd. to which the Government was supplying hard and soft wood for manufacture of paper at concessional rates. These rates were being fixed every five years. By a memorandum dated 2nd September, 1975 the Government of Andhra Pradesh in Forest and