( 1 ) THIS writ petition has been filed against four respondents. First respondent Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) is a Government company within the meaning of section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956; second and third resndents are respectively United India Periodicals Ltd. (UIP) and United Database (India) Private Limited (UDI) [udi Is a wholly owned subsidiary of UIP] and were given the contract for the publication of telephone directories for Delhi and Bombay under an agreement dated 14 March 1987; and the fourth respondent is Sterling Computers Limited (Sterling ). The agreement dated 14 March 1987 was entered into between the MTNL and UIP, but then on the request of UIP its subsidiary company UDI was allowed to execute the job under the agreement on behalf of UIP.

( 2 ) AN agreement dated 26 September 1991 called "supplemental agreement" was executed between all the respondents whereby Sterling got associated with UIP and UDI for publication of the directories for Delhi and Bombay. As to what are the terms of the original agreement and the supplemental agreement we will examine a little later as a great deal of arguments had been addressed on the effe