( 1 ) THE petitioners obtained, a licence under an auction held in the year 1956 for the year 1956-57, the period beginning from the 1-4-1956 to the 31-3-1957. The highest bid of the petitioners was for Rs. 72,0007- for the four shops to be run within the municipal limits of allahabad. The rival bidder was one L. Shiv Dayal Jaiswal. The right for selling opium in retail within the municipal limits of Allahabad used to be given away by public auction to the highest bidder by the District Magistrate under the provisions of the Excise Act, in February 1957 it was given out by the Excise authorises that in future there will be no auction for giving licence for selling the opium in retail. A new system was to be introduced which was known! as Surcharge system and the applications for purpose of obtaining licence were to be made to the Excise Licensing Board for Allahabad City. The petitioners thereafter applied to the licensing Board and L. Shiv Dayal Jaiswal also made a similar application. The Licensing board considered the various applications on the 21-3-1957 and it was given out to the petitioners that, the names of L. Shiv Dayal Jaiswal for Rani Mandi shop and one Sri