REDDY, J.

( 1 ) THE object of all these petitions is to prevent the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation from levying octroi duty on some of the commodities that are brought into the city.

( 2 ) ALL the petitioners, except those in Writ Petitions NOS. 1351 of 1957, 74,174, 176, 676 and 789 of 1958 and 193/59 are excise contractors, who have taken contracts for the sale of toddy and sendhi under the group system in auctions held in the year 1956. Under the terms of the contract, toddy and sendhi were to be sold in the Secunderubad abkari limits in certain places. These petitioners were allotted for tapping toddy and sendhi trees situated in several districts of the quondam Hyderabad State including those which were merged in the States of Bombay and Mysore. They were also given necessary permits to import and transport to the depots situated within the municipal limits of Secunderabad. They started business on 1/10/1956 and the toddy and sendhi were carried in lorries to their depots from the place of tapping in various districts. When these articles reached the octroi barriers erected at the entrance to the Hyderabad municipality, they were slopped and asked, to pay octroi duty. The pet