( 1 ) THIS writ petition has been filed with a prayer for a writ of certiorari for quashing the Securities And Exchange Board of India (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations,1999 notified on 15. 10. 99 (hereinafter referred to as the 1999 Regulations), vide Annexure-9 to the writ petition. The petitioners have also prayed for a mandamus directing the respondents not to treat the petitioner no. 1 as a Collective Investment Management Company. Heard learned counsel for the parties, Sri S. S. Ray and Shri S. M. A. Kazmi for the petitioners and Sri S. P. Gupta for the respondent no. 4.

( 2 ) THE petitioner no. 1 is a public Ltd. Company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act ,1956 carrying on inter-alia the business of collective hi-tech and hi-brid agro-plantation sale and development of orchards on behalf of the owners,cottages and Agricultural land. The petitioner no. 1 has also initiated its food processing unit at NOIDA (U. P.) in the name of Paramount Foods for which it has got sanction for allotment of an industrial plot from NOIDA. . The petitioner no. 1 is also in the field of information technology and software consultancy. Thus petitioner no. 1 has bee