By the Court.—All the petitioners in both the writ petitions are advertising companies/firms engaged in the business of advertising by placing and erecting hoardings on the public land either of the municipal corporation or the development authority or of the public works department as well as on certain private properties. They have challenged the notification dated 24.12.2009 which is said to have been published in the extra-ordinary Gazette notifying the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation (Assessment and Collection of Tax on Advertisement) Rules, 2009 which have been enforced w.e.f. 1.4.2010.

2. We have heard Sri B.D. Madhyan, Senior Advocate, Sri Sanjeev Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioners in one of the writ petitions, Sri C.K. Parekh, learned counsel for the Municipal Corporation and Sri K. Zaidi, for the Agra Development Authority. Learned Standing counsel has appeared for the State of U.P.

3. The contention of learned counsel for the petitioners is that they have a fundamental right to carry business of advertising. The impugned Rules infringe their above right and as such are ultra vires. Secondly, the procedure prescribed under Section 199 to 203 of the U.P