V. K. BALI, J. - M/s. Jindal Strips Limited, a public limited company registered under the Indian Companies Act, through separate three writ petitions bearing Nos. 1898 and 5864 of 1992 and 5404 of 1993, takes strong exception to the assessment orders made under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (hereinafter to be referred to as "the Central Act"), for the assessment years 1988-89, 1989-90 and 1990-91. Whereas, prayer in C.W.P. No. 1898 of 1992 is to issue a writ in the nature of certiorari to quash the show cause notices, annexures P101 (dated December 10, 1991) and P103 (dated December 17, 1991) as also assessment order, annexure P194, dated December 18, 1991, passed by respondents Nos. 2 and 4, prayer in writ petitions Nos. 5864 of 1992 and 5404 of 1992 and 5404 of 1993 is to quash show cause notice, annexure P690, dated April 22, 1992 and the assessment order, annexure P715, dated May 1, 1992, passed by respondent No. 2, the Excise and Taxation Commissioner-cum-Assessing Authority and impugned orders, annexure P29, dated February 18, 1993 and demand notice, annexure P30, dated February 18, 1993, respectively, being illegal and arbitrary. We propose to dispose of all the three writ petitions by this common judgment as identical questions of law and fact are involved in all the matters. Shorn of unnecessary verbiage, the facts have, however, been extracted from Civil Writ Petition No. 1898 of 1992 with some additional facts that might be necessary form the other two writ petitions. Learned counsel for the parties have also raised common questions in relation to all the writ petitions. Some additional contentions have also been raised pertaining to Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 5864 of 1992 and 5404 of 1993. The additional contentions shall be separately dealt with.

As mentioned above, petitioner No. 1, Jindal Strips Limited, is a public limited company duly registered under the Companies Act, 1956 and has its registered head office at Delhi Road, Hisar. Petitioner No. 2 is a shareholder of the company having financial interest in the petitioner-company - Jindal Strips Ltd. and is stated to be materially affected by the impugned orders passed by respondent Nos. 2/4 thereby creating additional demand to the tune of Rs. 2,04,13,895 vide orders dated December 18, 1991. Petitioner ? No. 1 is stated to be engaged in the business of manufacturing plain carbon, alloy and stainless steel strips, slabs, blooms, plates, oxygen and argon gases, etc. for the last more than two decades. Its business turnover increased manifold and the present turnover for the year 1990-91 is about Rs. 1,88,60,30,533.81 whereas its turnover for the year 1971-72 was Rs. 24,05,097. The reason for substantial increase in the turnover is stated to be that the company is engaged in the manufacture of products which are import substitute and the petitioner-company is mother industry for so many other units in the country. It is duly registered under the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as "the State Act") and the Central Act. The company has been filing its sales tax returns, both under the State Act and the Central Act regularly and depositing the amount of tax whatever was found due under the provisions of the State Act and/or the Central Act. It is further the case of petitioner-company that its assessment under the State Act as well as the Central Act had already been completed up to March 31, 1988, when the present Chief Minister Shri Bhajan Lal took over the affairs of Haryana State. The assessment of the company had always been made till above periods by the concerned authorities in accordance with law. The company claims to have a very clean track record as the management was very much conscious of the compliance of all laws including the sales tax law by paying taxes honestly and timely. From the assessment orders for the last nine years, it would be clear that the stakes at the time of final assessment orders, had been ve