JUDGMENT - 1. This is an application by a sales tax practitioner praying for the issue of a writ against the State of Bombay prohibiting it from expending public funds for the defence of the respondents Nos. 1 and 2 who are Assistant Commissioners of Sales Tax in the State of Bombay. This petition was preferred before the reorganization of the State of Bombay.

2. The petitioners contention is that the State of Bombay is not justified in expending public monies for the defence of the respondents Nos. 1 and 2 who are being prosecuted at the petitioners instance before a Magistrate in Nagpur for an offence under Section 500 read with Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code. The petitioner concedes that the grant or assistance to Government servants who have to institute or defend civil or criminal proceedings in respect of acts done by them in the discharge of their official duties is permissible under rule 189 of the Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules and Rules for the Conduct of the Legal Affairs of Government. But according to him, the respondents Nos. 1 and 2 are not entitled to the grant of assistance because it has been judicially held in this case that they are not being pr

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