( 1 ) THE petitioner is a registered firm (hereinafter referred to as the 'firm'), carrying on business under the name and style of Ruttonjee and Co. Its partners are Hirjoo Ruttonjee Bhesania. Feroze Mancherchaw Bhesania. The opposite party No. 4 is a limited company (hereinafter referred to as the 'company'), of which the partners of the firm are also directors amongst others. The company is carrying on its business under the name Ruttonjee and Co. Ltd. The firm whose original business was sale of liquors, alleges that in 1957, it applied to the proper authority for permission to start a brewery in West Bengal, and obtained such permission from the State of West Bengal (O/p. No. 1), and also obtained the permission of the Government of India for the establishment of a new industrial undertaking for the manufacture of beer. In 1959 however, before the brewery was established, the partners of the firm decided to promote a limited company to assist the firm in the financing and implementation of the project of establishing and working the said brewery. The company was accordingly incorporated in 1960, including the two partners of the firm in its Board of Directors.

( 2 ) THE brewery license under the Rules framed under the Bengal Excise Act, 1909 (hereinafter referred to as the 'act'), was eventually granted for the period from the 2nd August, 1965 to the 31st March, 1966, (Anx. 'c-D' to the petition), not in the name of the firm alone but jointly in favour of the firm and the company, subject to certain conditions as imposed by the Government of West Bengal in their letter of 24th July, 1965, (Anx. 'c')

( 3 ) FOR the next year commencing from the 1st April. 1966 an application for renewal of the license was submitted to the Collector of Nadia (the licensing authority) jointly by the firm and the company (Anx. 'f' to the petition) and it is alleged that the firm from its own fund deposited a sum of Rs. 2,000 (Rs. two thousand), as the license fee (vide challan in Anex. 'h' ). But on the 5th April, 1966, the petitioner received a copy of a letter (Anx 'i' written by the Assistant Secretary, Excise Department, Government of West Bengal, to the Excise Commissioner (O/p. No. 2) by which the Government approved of the grant of the brewery license in respect of the said brewery to the company alone, to the exclusion of the firm for the year 1966-67.

( 4 ) THE firm has, therefore, brought this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for proper writs directed against the impugned letter of the State Government (Anx. 'i') on the grounds inter alia, (a) that the application of the petitioner for the renewal of license jointly in favour of the company has not been dealt with by the Collector and the Commissioner of Excise (O. P. Nos. 2 and 3) who are alone entitled to deal with the application according to law, (b) that the State Government (O/p. No. 1), has no jurisdiction to pass the impugned order. It is stated in the petition that no license has yet been issued pursuant to the impugned order. The petitioner, accordingly, prays for appropriate writs to quash the impugned order and command the opposite parties Nos. 1, 2 and 3 to cancel or give effect to the impugned order and then to deal with the petitioner's application for renewal according to law.

( 5 ) THE most peculiar feature of this case is that the O/p. No. 4, the company, is sought to be represented by two groups of persons and two sets of affidavits have been filed on behalf of the same company; the first- one, dated the 3rd May, 1966, has been filed by Framroze Ruttonjee Bhesania, who is a brother of Hirjoo Ruttonjee (partner of the firm) and a director of the company. The affidavit of Framroze is to the effect that he is a permanent director of the company under the articles of the association of the company and that he alone has been directed by the Board of Directors, by a resolution, dated the 29th July, 1965, to represent the company 'in all the m