P.N.BHAGWATI, J.

(1) -THIS appeal, by special leave, is directed against the order of the High court of orissa allowing a writ petition filed by the first respondent for quashing a press note dated 1/02/1971 levying a coal surcharge at 0-62 p. per unit of electricity supplied by the orissa State Electricity Board to the first respondent. The writ petition came to be filed by the first respondent in the following circumstances.

(2) THE first respondent is a limited liability company carrying on business of manufacturing aluminium. It has several factories at different places in the country where it carries on one or the other processes involved in the manufacture of aluminium. It was desirous of setting up another factory and for that purpose it was looking for a place where it would be able to secure at reasonable rates electrical energy which is a primary raw material in the method of electrolysis employed for the purpose of converting alumina into aluminium. The State of orissa had, about this time, commissioned hydroelectric station at the site of Hirakud Dam with a view to step up the production of electricity and making it available for industrial