JUDGMENT :

Rekha Borana, J.

1. The present special appeals being arising out of a common judgment have been heard and are decided jointly by this common judgment.

2. The brief facts of the case are that for better administration of buying and selling of agricultural produce and establishment of market for agricultural produce in the State of Rajasthan, the Rajasthan Agricultural Market Produce Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "Act of 1961") was enacted. For the purpose of effective implementation of the provisions of the Act of 1961, the Rajasthan Agricultural Market Produce Rules, 1963 (hereinafter referred to as "Rules of 1963") were framed. The Act of 1961 provides for constitution of Market Samiti and the power of the said Samiti to collect market fee as well as market committee fund. The said fund is utilized for the purposes such as acquisition of sites for the market, maintenance and improvement of market etc. The Act also provides for the power of the Market Committee regarding disposal of movable and immovable property.

3. At the inception, the shops in the Mandi yard were allotted through auction as no separate guidelines/by-laws were provided for the same. The said process was given challenge to in various writ petitions filed before this Court. In the case of M/s. Ved Prakash Ramesh Chandra & Company v. State of Rajasthan and Ors. (D.B. Civil Special Appeal (Writ) No.401/1996, decided on 06.03.2002) the Division Bench of this Court directed the State Government to constitute a Committee to formulate a policy for allotment of the shops. The operative portion of the judgment as passed in Ved Prakash's case (supra) is as under:

"Therefore, in the larger interest of public, this Court feels that the State Government be directed to constitute a committee to formulate a policy for allotment of shops. It will be better that the Committee consults the Mandi Samitis as well as representatives of the traders and lays down guidelines for making available the shops to the traders so that the object of the Act of 1961 may be fulfilled without causing hardship to the traders and loss to the Mandi Samiti. The Committee should be constituted within one month and it should take a decision within a period of three months thereafter."

4. In pursuance of the above mentioned directions, the State Government constituted a Committee and formulated a detailed policy for allotment of the immovable property which came into effect from 25.04.2005. The policy of 2005 provides for the criteria, procedure, reservation as well as the price/cost of the allotment to be made in the market yard. Clause 11 of the Policy provided that those shopkeepers who already had the shops in the Mandi Yard on rent basis would now be given preference for conversion of the said shop from rent basis to lease basis. Clause 11 ¼[k½ of the Policy provided for an option to be given to such shopkeepers to get their allotment converted to a lease for 49 years on such percentage of DLC Rates as may be decided by the Government. In terms of the said Clause, the options were invited from the shopkeepers.

5. An amendment was introduced in Clause 11¼[k½ of the Policy of 2005 and it was provided that the allotment would be made @ 25% of DLC rates as applicable on 01.04.2007. Vide the amendment, the lease period was also extended from 49 to 99 years. Vide communication dated 30.04.2008, the options were invited by the Committee to be submitted by 12.05.2008 and along with the said communication, the calculation of the amount to be paid for the purpose was also annexed. According to the calculation, 25% of the DLC rate (Rs. 9792/- per sq. mtr.) amounted to Rs. 2448/- per sq. mtr. It is relevant to note here that on 01.04.2008, no separate DLC rate was fixed for the Mandi Yard, therefore, the DLC rate of the nearest commercial area as prevailing on 01.04.2007 was taken into acc