1. This judgment shall govern writ petition Nos.9469 and 9470 of 1998 as the parties are common and also the controversy involved. Common petitioner herein is a company registered under the Companies Act which carries its business as steamer agents, stevedores as also clearing and forwarding agents. Though the petitioner carries on its business all over India through its branches, the present controversy relates only to the Port of Madras and the Board of Trustees of Port of Madras is the first respondent herein. Second and third respondents are also more or less in the same business as that of the petitioner and can be conveniently called as the business rivals. It is an undisputed position that the first respondent is a statutory body and is governed by the provisions of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 (hereinafter called 1963 Act for the sake of brevity). The whole controversy in the petitions revolves around two berths out of the total six berths at Jawahar Docks in Chennai Port. These six berths are for handling deep drafted vessels with a draft of 33 feet and a beam of 105 feet. In short, bigger vessels which carry large quantities of cargo can be berthed at these