JUDGMENT

ALTAMAS KABIR, CJI.

1. Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 5849 of 2008 filed by one Mohd. Jamal, has been heard along with several other matters where the same issue has been raised and the reliefs prayed for are similar.

2. Leave granted in all the matters. During the hearing of these matters, Mohd. Jamal's case was taken up as the lead matter.

3. From the facts as disclosed in the several Special Leave Petitions (now Appeals), there are three groups of matters included in these Appeals. The first group relates to the State of Karnataka, where the Union of India is the Petitioner/Appellant. The second group involves matters filed by the private parties where the jurisdiction is that of Delhi. The third group deals with the similar question in regard to the States of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

4. All the private Appellants were and are aspirants for dealership in respect of retail outlets of the Indian Oil Corporation and the IBP, which merged with the Indian Oil Corporation on 2nd May, 2007. The genesis of the claim for dealership arises out of policy guidelines, being Policy/MDPM No.319/02 dated 8th October, 2002, for selection of retail outlet dealers, published by