Judgement

VARADARAJAN, J. (Minority view) :- Civil Appeal 1656 of 1974 is by special leave. The other appeals are by certificate granted by the Allahabad High Court. All the appeals arise out of the judgment of a Division Bench of that High Court in a batch of Writ Petitions out of which W.P. No. 3421 of 1974 was treated as the leading case. Civil Appeals 1568-1576 of 1974 and batch have arisen out of that batch of Writ Petitions. In the other set of Civil Appeals another Writ Petition of 1974 is said to have been treated as the leading case by the High Court. The decisions were rendered in Writ Petition No. 3421 of 1974 for one batch and in another Writ Petition of 1974 for the. other batch. But in all the appeals before us, the judgment in W. P. No. 3421 of 1974 alone was referred to.

2. The Writ Petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution challenged the validity of a notification dated 14-6-1974, issued by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in exercise of the power conferred by Rule 114 of the Defence of India Rules, 1971, directing that no registered dealer of fertilizer shall charge or retain, enter into or enforce any contract for charging, in respect of any fertilizer s