( 1 ) THESE writ appeals are filed being aggrieved by the Order of the learned single Judge in Writ Petition no. 13064 of 1999, dated 24-8-2000. While, respondents 1 and 2 in the said Writ Petition filed Writ Appeal No. 1355 of 2000, respondent Nos. 3 and 4 filed Writ Appeal nos. 1293 and 1332 of 2000 respectively.

( 2 ) THE parties are hereinafter referred to as arrayed in the Writ Petition. The brief facts, which are necessary for the disposal of these appeals, are as under:

( 3 ) ACCORDING to the petitioner, he is a public spirited citizen and was the Chairman of Rayachoti Rural Electricity Supply co-operative Society during 1997-98. He is the Convener of the Anna Telugu Desam party for Lakkireddipalle Assembly constituency, Cuddapah District. To espouse the public cause in the public interest, this writ Petition was filed. He stated that the engineer-in-Chief, Roads and Buildings department, Hyderabad issued a tender notification dated 17-7-1998 for various works including items 1 to 8 pertaining to improvements to the existing road described as carriageway from KM 54/0 to KM 93/0 of Rajampet-Tumkur Road. Each item of work was divided into a separate reach for a distance of 5 to 6 kilometres, as the case may be. Condition No. l of the Special conditions contemplates that the tenderer shall have executed the work for one year preceding the five years of the tender notification, of the value indicated in column 13 against each of the item of the work, as original agency, in their own name and style, and that such of those tenderers, who fulfil the special condition, are alone entitled to apply for such works. Evidently, the contractor in the name and style sri Sai sreenivasa Construction represented by its managing Partner Sri R. Srinivasulu Reddy, cuddapah - 3rd respondent - filed the tender, though he did not have any previous experience, as the said partnership firm was formed only in the year 1998. Further, it was alleged that the said Srinivasulu Reddy was the son of R. Rajagopal Reddy, former minister and a close associate and friend of s. Veera Reddy, the Minister of Minor irrigation, who also hails from Cuddapah district. Apart from this, the father-in-law of srinivasulu Reddy is one of the five Chief engineers working in the Roads and buildings Department. Obviously, the strong clout of Sreenivasulu Reddy made the department ignore the eligibility condition and purportedly on the ground that he was the lowest tenderer, there was an attempt to award the contract in his favour in respect of four reaches covered by items 5 to 8 in the tender notification. One of the eligible tenderers by name C. Babu Reddy filed Writ petition No. 34226 of 1998 in this Court challenging the said action. This Court while admitting the Writ Petition granted interim orders of status quo as on 10-12-1998, which was extended from time to time. While the said Writ Petition was pending, the department had obviously realized that their action in treating the 3rd respondent as an eligible tenderer is in-defensive, appeared to have dropped further proceedings in pursuance of the said tender notification. Further, a press report was also published in eenadu Telugu Daily dated 12-6-1999 exposing the grave irregularities pertaining to the work in question and the involvement of a Minister in order to get the work awarded in favour of the son of a former Minister belonging to Congress Party. After going through this report, the petitioner had collected the relevant details pertaining to previous tender dated 17-7-1998 and the present tender dated 7-6-1999. A reading of the press note shows that the above-mentioned Minister and his friends have directly interfered with the matter of awarding contract and attempted to get the work awarded in favour of the 3rd respondent and that in view of the filing of the said writ Petition No. 34226 of 1998, the said attempt was thwarted. What is significant is, it is stated in the press report that after giving

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