JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for the issuance of a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, calling for the records comprised in the letter dated 09.10.2013 and numbered 04014/ 1/2012-Salt, passed by the first respondent to frame a transparent policy on management of saline lands belonging to the Central Government, keeping in mind the welfare of the numerous salt workers who are involved in the industry.)

1. The writ petitions on hand are instituted questioning the sustainability of the Notification dated 09.10.2013 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Government of India, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (Salt Section).

“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot”

The above words of Czeslaw Milosz would be apt as in the present case the one word of “open auction” creates panic in the minds of the salt manufacturers/writ petitioners.”

2. These batch of writ petitions are heard as the issues raised are one and the same and all the petitioners as well as the members of the some petitioner-Associations are the salt manufacturers in