By the Court.—In all these connected writ petitions filed by the then Chairpersons and the Presidents of Municipal Corporations and Nagar Palika Parishads of Allahabad, Rampur and Saharanpur, with the intervention of the present Chairperson, Allahabad Municipal Corporation, Allahabad, they have prayed for writ of mandamus to strike down the U.P. Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973 (in short the U.P. Act of 1973); to dissolve various Development Authorities in the State of U.P. established under the Act; commanding the State Government to place material before the Court to show-cause as to whether any Development Authority has substantially achieved the objects of the Act; to declare the provisions of Section 112-A of the U.P. Municipal Corporation Act, 1959 (the U.P. Act of 1959); Section 69 B of the U.P. Municipal Act, 1916 (the U.P. Act of 1916) and U.P. Palika (Centralised) Service Rules, 1966 to be ultra vires the Constitution of India; to declare Section 3 (2) (b) of the U.P. Municipalities Act to be ultra vires the Constitution of India as being violative of Article 243-Q of the Constitution of India and for other consequential reliefs.

2. The writ petitions were