Judgment

B. P. SINHA, J. : These appeals by special leave are directed against the judgments and orders of the Assam High Court, exercising its powers under Arts, 226 and 227 of the Constitution, in respect of orders passed by the Revenue Authorities under the provisions of the Eastern Bengal and Assam Excise Act, 1910 (E. B. and Assam Act 1 of 1910) (hereinafter referred to as the Act). They raise certain common questions of constitutional law, and have, therefore, been heard together, and will be disposed of by this Judgement. Though there are certain common features in the pattern of the proceedings relating to the settlement of certain country spirit shops, when they passed through the hierarchy of the authorities under the Act, the facts of each case are different, and have to be stated separately in so far as it is necessary to state them.

2. (I) Civil Appeal No. 668 of 1957. - The two appellants Nagendra Nath Bora and Ridananda Dutt are partners, the partnership having been formed in view of the Government notification dated November 30, 1956, amending rule 232 of the Assam Excise Rules, to the effect that the settlement of the country spirit shops which may be declared by the Government to be big shops , shall be made with two or more partners who shall not belong to the same family nor should be related to one another (vide correction slip at p. 106 of the Assam Excise Manual, 1946). In accordance with the rules framed under the Act, tenders were invited by the Deputy Commissioner of Sibsagar, for the settlement of Jorhat country spirit shop for the financial year 1957-58, in December, 1956. The appellants as members of the partnership aforesaid, submitted a tender in the prescribed form. Respondents 3 and 4, Dharmeshwar Kalita and Someswar Neog, respectively, also were amongst the tenderers. The Commissioner of Hills Division and Appeals, Assam, and the Commissioner of Excise, Assam, are the first and the second respondents in this case. It is necessary to state at this stage that in respect of the financial year 1956-57, the shop in question was ordered by the first respondent as the Exercise Appellate Authority to be settled with the first appellant Nagendra Nath as an individual, setting aside the orders of the Deputy Commissioner and the Excise Commissioner. The other competitors for the settlement of the said shop being dissatisfied with the orders of the first respondent, moved the Assam High Court and challenged the validity of the settlement made in the first appellant s favour. Similar writ cases challenging orders of settlement by the 1st respondent as the Excise Appellate Authority had been instituted in the High Court. All those cases were heard together, and the High Court, by its judgment dated May 22, 1956, quashed the orders passed by the first respondent, chiefly on the ground that the Appellate Authority had been illegally constituted. The matter was brought by way of special leave to this Court, and was heard by the Constitution Bench which, by its judgment dated January 31, 1957, decided that the constitution of the Commissioner of Hills Division and Appeals as the ultimate appellate Authority under the Act, was not unconstitutional. The judgment of this Court is reported in the case of State of Assam v. A. N. Kidwai, 1957 SCR 295: It will be necessary, in the course of this judgment, to make several references to that decision which for the sake of brevity, we shall call the ruling of this Court. The result of the ruling of this Court was that the determination by the Assam High Court that the orders passed by the first respondent, were void, was set aside, and the settlement made by that Authority, consequently, stood restored. But in the meantime, as the orders of the first respondent stood quashed as a result of the judgment of the High Court, the direction of the Excise Commissioner that the shop in question be re-settled, was carried out, and the settlement was made with the third responde