JUDGMENT :

B.P. Das, J. - In all these writ petitions, the relief claimed by the Petitioners being the same and similar, they were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. The Petitioners in these writ petitions are all contractors and they had entered into different contracts with the State Govt./Rail Vikash Nigam Ltd. for executing different types of construction works under the State Govt./Rail Vikash Nigam Ltd. The Petitioners have prayed for a direction to the opposite parties not to deduct royalty from their running account bills in excess of the rates fixed at the time of signing the agreements.

3. For the sake of brevity, we indicate the facts of W.P. (C) No. 7744 of 2008. Here, the Petitioner had entered into an agreement with the opposite party State Govt. after being successful in the competitive bid in respect of the work "Improvement to Cuttack Govindpur Banki Simor Road (M.D.R. 77) From 5/0 to 10/0 KM., 15.820 to 16/260 KM & 17/0 to 17/500 KM under 12th FCA for the year 2006 07". As per the terms and conditions of the said agreement, the Petitioner had to bear all taxes, including VAT, income tax, royalty, fair weather charges, tollage, where