Oil Marketing Companies possess the authority to set and amend guidelines affecting retail outlet dealers, ensuring compliance with welfare measures and market discipline.

JUDGMENT

SUMMARIUM, J. - Being aggrieved and feeling dissatisfied by the common judgment and order of the learned Single Judge passed in W.P.(C) No. 10334/2017, W.P.(C) No.10746/2017 and W.P.(C) No. 11246/2017 dated 18.03.2020, Appellants have preferred the present Letters Patent Appeals. Appellants, herein, were Respondents No.2 to 4 respectively, in the writ Petitions. For the sake of convenience, parties are being referred to hereinafter, by their litigating status before this Court. The prime ground for challenge in the present Appeals, inter alia, is that by the impugned judgement, the affect of Amendment, notified in the year 2017, amending the Marketing Discipline Guidelines, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as "MDGs" for the sake of brevity), has been invalidated and nullified.

II. FACTUAL MATRIX

2. Appellants herein, being Oil Marketing Companies (hereinafter referred to as "OMCs"), in the year 1981-82, for the first time, formulated and issued the MDGs, for maintaining market discipline and uniformity in action for operating the network of Petrol and Diesel Retail Outlets (hereinafter referred to as "ROs") under the OMCs.

3. The MDGs were reviewed and amended from time to time, in view of changing circumstances as well as to set high customer service benchmarks for the OMCs as also the Dealers' network.

4. The MDGs were reviewed and amended again in the year 2012 and MDG-2012 were issued and made effective from 08.01.2013.

5. The MDG-2012 were challenged in various High Courts of India. Allahabad High Court, Delhi High Court, Karnataka High Court, etc. have passed orders, which shall be adverted to in the later part of the judgment and have upheld the power, jurisdiction and authority of OMCs to issue the MDGs.

6. As per the stand of the Appellants, in view of detection of large scale malpractices in some States at the time of supply and dispensation of petroleum products to the customers, by manipulating software/hardware, in the Dispensing Units and with a view to motivate the employees of ROs to provide better service standards and deliver the assurances to customers in terms of quality, quantity, cleanliness and behaviour, MDG-12 were amended in the year 2017. There are communications between the OMCs and their respective Dealers, in the month of July, 2017, August, 2017 and September, 2017, wherein highlights of the revisions, sought to be brought about by the amendment, were set out, particularly with regard to revision in Dealers' Margin, to enable the Dealers to make payments of wages to the manpower, employed in the ROs, at rates higher than the minimum wages, applicable under Central Minimum Wages or Statutory Minimum Wages, as notified by the States/UTs, effective from 01.08.2017, as well as benefits such as PF, Bonus, Gratuity etc. It was also clarified that slab-based margins had been introduced in respect of 'Business Return' and 'Manpower' and the non slab-based margins had two components viz. 'Fixed Margin' and 'Variable Margin'.

7. Communication dated 19.09.2017 issued by the OMCs reiterated the aforesaid directions to the Dealers. Additionally, it was directed that payment of wages with effect from August, 2017 were required to be made through e-payment and that the Wage Register and e-payment details were to be kept ready by the RO Dealers, for verification by officials of the OMCs. Employees of t