( 1 ) THESE are two applications under Article 226 of the Constitution praying that this Court might be pleased to issue writs in the nature of certiorari, prohibition and mandamus for different acts alleged to have been done by the respondents. The first of these applications has been filed by the Asiatic Engineering Co. Ltd. (hereinafter called the Company) and its writ application number is 287 of 1950. The second application has been presented to this Court by a foreign Company, the Amin Agencies Ltd. , and its number is 288 of 1950. Broadly speaking, the main facts which have given rise to them are the same, but we propose first of all to set out in brief the salient features of application No. 287 and thereafter deal with those distinguishing facts on which application No. 288 of 1950 is founded.

( 2 ) THE Company was incorporated as a private company under the Indian Companies Act in 1941 and has its registered office at 25/26 Waterloo Street, Calcutta, in the State of West Bengal. It is stated in the petition that the Company had and still has its registered office at Calcutta and branch offices at, inter alia, Kanpur and London. The words "inter alia" appear to