Raghavan, J.- Out of a large number of writ petitions questioning the validity of the Tamil Nadu Ordinance of 1973, the above writ petitions typifying the two classes of persons affected, viz., one by a bus operator or a permit holder and the other by the financier under a hire-purchase agreement, have been posted for hearing. We shall take up W.P. No. 123 of 1973 filed "by a bus operator or a permit holder and W.P. No. 876 of 1973 and W.P. No. 1486 of 1973 filed by leading financiers in the State of Madras by way of sample. All other writ petitions are more or less of the same pattern falling under one or the other of the above classifications. Before dealing with the allegations contained in each of the above groups, we shall briefly refer to the salient features of Tamil Nadu Ordinance (I of 19731), hereinafter referred to as the Ordinance, in order to appreciate the attack on its various provisions.

2. On 12th January, 1973 the Governor of Tamil Nadu promulgated the Tamil Nadu Ordinance (No. I of 1973). The said Ordinance was published in the Tamil Nadu Gazette, dated 14th January, 1973, and according to the provisions of the said Ordinance, Clauses 1, 14, 15,16 and 17 came into

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