JUDGMENT

Swatanter Kumar, J.

1. The Government of India, on 28th March, 2001, issued a notification under the provisions of Section 41(6) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short, ‘the Act’) read with Rule 50 of the Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 (for short, ‘the Rules’) for implementation of the provisions of the Act. This notification sought to introduce a new scheme regulating issuance and fixation - of High Security Number Plates. In terms of sub-section (3) of Section 109 of the Act, the Central Government issued an order dated 22nd August, 2001 which dealt with various facets of manufacture, supply and fixation of new High Security Registration Plates (hereinafter, ‘HSRP’). The Central Government also issued a notification dated 16th October, 2001 for further implementation of the said order and the HSRP scheme. Various States had invited tenders in order to implement this scheme.

2. A writ petition being Writ Petition (C) No.41 of 2003 was filed in this Court challenging the Central Government’s power to issue such notification as well as the terms and conditions of the tender process. In addition to the above writ petition before this Court, various other writ petitions were