( 1 ) THE question that falls for determination is, when a citizen moves this court under Art. 226 of the Constitution for the issue of a Writ of certiorari for quashing an order of the Government and when it issues a rule nisi calling for the records whether the Government can withhold production of documents for the perusal of the Court, claiming privilege and whether this Court has overriding power in view of its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226.

( 2 ) IT may be stated at the outset that the Government on account of some practice said to be prevalent from the days of the Composite State of Madras, do not forward the records called for directly to the Court, but seen them to the custody of the Law Officers, i. e. , the Advocate-General or the Government Pleader, as the case maybe, and not all the records that are sent to the Advocate-General or the Government Pleader are placed at the disposal of the Court for its scrutiny at the time when the Writ petition comes up for hearing as more often than not the notes made of the opinions expressed by the Secretaries concerned or the Departmental heads or the Ministers relating to a claiming privilege under Sec