In this Writ Petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner asks this Court:

(i) to forbid respondents 1 to 3 from granting to respondents, 4, 5 and/or 6 for Indian Express and Sunday Standard. Bangalore, any newsprint or newsprint quota, the said papers being new newspapers added to the existing chain of Indian Express Newspapers;

(ii) to forbid respondents4 and 5, their servants and agents and any of their subsidiary Companies from diverting, using or otherwise appropriating for Indian Express and/or Sunday Standard, Bangalore the newsprint allotted to Indian Express or Sunday Standard published from any other centre or to any other newspaper owned or controlled by respondents 4 or 5; and

(iii) to direct respondents 1 to 3 to prevent any such diversion, use or appropriation, by issuing a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate Writ, Order or direction.

The petitioner is a Private Limited Company incorporated under the Companies Act. It has its registered office in Bangalore. It is the proprietor of the English Daily ‘Deccan Herald’ and the Kannada Daily ‘Prajavani’. Boths these papers, are published from Bangalore.

The fourth-respondent company is a s