Judgment

WANCHOO, J. : These two appeals on certificates granted by the Madhya Pradesh High Court raise common questions of law and will be dealt with together. The respondent the Gwalior Rayon Silk Manufacturing (Weaving) Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as the company) is registered under the Indian Companies Act. It is necessary to set out how the company came to be established in order to understand the case put forward by the company. In October 1946 Messrs. Birla Brothers Limited Gwalior, wrote to the Government of Gwalior that they intended to establish at some suitable place in Gwalior a kind of industrial centre in which they intended to set up certain industries provided certain facilities were granted to them by the Government of Gwalior. The facilities for which they made the request were ( i ) free adequate land at a suitable site; (ii) free processing water if obtainable from a river and at a specially concessional rate if obtainable from a dam, and (iii) exemption from any form of taxation on income for a period of fifteen years from the date of the starting of the factories. On this letter being received, the matter was processed in the Secretariat of the for