( 1 ) ALL these seven petitions have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment at the instance of both the sides. The learned Counsels for both the sides have referred to the papers filed in the main matter Special Civil Application No. 1837 of 1997 for the purpose of their arguments.

( 2 ) THESE identical petitions seek to challenge the order passed by Honble the speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly on 24th February 1997 which is at annexure "a" to the petition by which these petitioners were in response to their letter dated 20th February 1997 addressed to Honble the Speaker informed by him that he did not find it proper at that stage to change the sitting arrangement under which these petitioners were allotted their seats with the Mahagujarat Janata Party in the House. A declaration is also sought that these petitioners continued to be the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and that they were entitled to sit with the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the House. By an amendment a further prayer is sought, seeking a direction that the names of the petitioners should be deleted from the list of the members of the Mahagujarat Janata Party and be entered in the list of members of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the roll of the Gujarat legislative Assembly. By a further amended prayer, the petitioners seek a direction for setting aside the order of the Honble Speaker published in the bulletin dated 18th February 1997 at Annexure V to the affidavit-in-reply of the respondent No. 3 President of the M. J. P. , by which the Honble Speaker declared the earlier order dated 3rd September 1996 giving recognition to the separate group of Dilipbhai parikh as operative and directed the Secretary of the Legislative Assembly to make the sitting arrangements in the House accordingly. All these petitioners were admittedly elected as the candidates of the Bharatiya janata Party ("b. J. P. " for short) in the Assembly elections of 1995. It is their case that the B. J. P. secured an absolute majority by obtaining 121 seats in a House of 182 in which the Congress Party secured 45 seats and 16 independent candidates were elected. According to the petitioners, at a meeting of the B. J. P. legislators on 18-8-1996 which was attended by 97 M. L. A. s, who were elected as the candidates of the B. J. P. Atmaram Patel, C. K. Raulji, Mansinh Chauhan, Vipul Chaudhary and some others were expelled from the party for anti-party activities. On that day itself between 7-00 to 10-00 p. m. four M. L. A. s led by Shri Atmaram Patel, submitted a memorandum to His Excellency the Governor alongwith a list of M. L. A. s alleging that a separate group representing faction consisting of not less than one-third of the members of the B. J. P. , was constituted under the name of Mahagujarat Janata party in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly and that the present ruling party was reduced in strength to 75 members and had lost majority in the House. The Governor was, therefore, requested to take appropriate action in this regard. It was also stated that necessary application for being recognised as a group representing the faction which had formed into Mahagujarat Janata Party ("m. J. P. " for short) in the Assembly was being made to Honble the Speaker. According to the petitioners, as soon as they came to know about this move, they and others wrote letters disputing their signatures contained in the list forwarded to the Governor. It appears that His Excellency the Governor forwarded papers to the Speaker for verification of the signatures. The D. O. letters dated 24th, 26th and 27th August, 1996, written by the Principal Secretary to the Governor to the Secretary of the assembly regarding verification of names and signatures of M. L. A. s on the documents appended to those letters are referred in the communication dated 30th august, 1996 sent by the Secretary of the Assembly Mr. V. H. Dave to the Principal secret