Hon’ble Sudhir Agarwal, J.—During pendency of writ petition, we are informed that petitioners 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15 and 16 have died long back and, therefore, writ petition has abated in respect of these petitioners including criminal proceedings initiated against them.

2. The proceedings in question as also the dispute in the present writ petition is now surviving only in respect of petitioners 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 13 and 14 only.

3. Sri Prashant Chandra, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Sri Rahul Mishra and Sri Sudeep Kumar, Advocates, have appeared for petitioners; Sri R.C. Yadav, learned Standing Counsel for respondent-1; and, Dr. H.N. Tripathi, Advocate, has appeared for respondent-2.

4. About ten orders passed in a span of more than one and half decade have been challenged collectively in this writ petition. Order dated 26.10.1981 (Annexure 3) is passed by U.P. Water Pollution Board (hereinafter referred to as “Board”) refusing consent to petitioner-1 for discharge of effluent on the ground that effluent discharged by petitioner is highly polluted and has not been properly treated and disposed of. The orders dated 27.3.1982 (Annexure-5), 7.2.1983 (Annexure-35B), 16