Mr. Surya Kant, J.: - This order shall dispose of a bunch of writ petitions which do not necessarily involve identical questions of law or facts. However, the genesis of all the cases is broadly the same and issues involved are so overlapping and thickly tied to each other that we deem it appropriate to decide them through a common order.

2. For the sake of convenience, we propose to segregate these cases into the following seven groups, out of which five pertain to one or the other Scheme of State of Punjab while the remaining two relate to the Schemes formulated by State of Haryana :-

Punjab Cases

(i) the petitioners in CWP Nos.15786 of 1999; 3547 of 2000; 214 of 2001; 17570 of 2003; 8700 of 2008; 17539, 13624, 15809, 18628 of 2009; 5290 of 2011 seek to strike down the Scheme dated August 9, 1990 formulated by the Government of Punjab in exercise of its powers under Section 99 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, as also the subsequent modifications made in the Scheme on October 21, 1997 or thereafter. They also seek directions to the respondents to liberate the issuance of permits on nonnationalised routes and issue Stage Carriage Permits in accordance with Chapter-V of the