JUDGMENT :

Amitava Roy, J.

1. The Indian Oil Corporation Limited (hereafter to be referred to as the “IOC/Corporation”) and its functionaries, in this appeal seek to overturn the judgment and order dated 04.10.2004 rendered by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Civil Misc. Petition No. 34886 of 1998, thereby directing the Corporation to convert the dealership of a petrol pump initially allotted in favour of the respondent No.1 (hereafter to be referred to as the “respondent”) under the discretionary quota of the Departmental Minister concerned to one under its (appellant) circular No.67-2/2K4 dated 12.02.2004 and restraining it as well from interfering with the possession of the respondent of the installation premises. As the sequence of events would unfold, the attendant facts do project a distressing state of affairs in the matter of distribution of State largesse, seemingly motivated by irrelevant considerations, deliberate defaults and casual disregard to binding judicial adjudications of a Constitutional Court.

2. We have heard Mr. Annam D.N. Rao, learned counsel for the appellants and Mr. Tripurari Ray, learned counsel for the respondent No. 1. Though served, but none