1. Vide these petitions, the petitioners have challenged the order dated 30.06.2016 passed by respondent No. 2 i.e. Controller General, IBM as Administering Authority appointed under Section 10 of the offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002 (herein after referred as OAMDR Act), whereby the respondent No. 2 has sought to annual the notification dated 07.06.2010 inviting applications for allotment of exploration license. As a result of the same, the respondent No. 2 has also annulled all the subsequent actions including the order dated 05.04.2011 by which the exploration licenses had been granted.

2. The facts and issues in the present petitions are same and similar, therefore, the present petitions are being disposed of by this common judgment. The facts and page numbers shall be discussed with reference to Writ Petition No. 7537/2018, however, facts and other petitions shall not be repeated for the sake of brevity being similar.

3. The impugned order dated 30.06.2016 is broadly challenged on the following grounds:-

(a) The impugned order dated 30.06