JUDGMENT - A.P. SHAH, J.:---These petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution arise out of orders passed by the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) by which refund applications of the petitioners were rejected. Since common question of law is involved in these petitions all the petitions are heard and disposed of by this common judgment.

2. Few facts giving rise to these petitions are these. The petitioners imported certain consignments of goods under Duty Exemption Entitlement Certificate (DEEC) Scheme and Project Import Scheme. The petitioners claim that when the shipments arrived in Mumbai, they removed the goods to the customs bonded warehouse to avoid demurrage till the completion of the formalities for availing the concessional/reduced custom duty under the DEEC Scheme and the Project Investment Scheme. When the goods were removed to the customs bonded warehouses the petitioners lodged the Bills of Entry for warehousing and furnished bonds to the custom authorities equivalent to the whole of the estimated/provisional custom duty. At the time of removal of the goods to the customs bonded warehouse the BMC Bombay Municipal Corporation levied octroi duty on the said goods by a

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