( 1 ) THE petitioners Nos. 1 and 2, public limited companies, incorporated under the Indian companies Act,, 1956, and petitioner No. 3, a partnership firm, are allied concerns of Q. S. T. Groups of Kanpur and petitioner No. 4 is the manager, accounts, of the said group. On January 15, 1987, a search was conducted by the Income-tax Department at different places of Q. S. T. Groups including the premises of the petitioners and various account books were seized for which seizure a memo was prepared and issued to the petitioners. Admittedly, the Department retained the books for a period exceeding 180 days without obtaining the approval of the commissioner for such retention within the meaning of Sub-section (8) of Section 132 of the income-tax Act, 1961 ("the Act" for short ). Thereupon, the petitioners filed this writ petition praying that the retention of the books beyond 180 days is absolutely illegal and the respondents be directed to return the account books forthwith.

( 2 ) THEREAFTER, the petitioners made an application that the respondents started taking photostat copies from the account books illegally retained beyond 180 days. As no photostat copies or extract