JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Shri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Siddharth Khare, Advocate; Shri H.N. Singh, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Seemant Singh, Advocate; Shri Vijay Gautam, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Pradeep Kesharwani, Advocate, Ms. Atipriya Gautam, Advocate, Shri Anoop Trivedi, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Vibhu Rai, Advocate, Shri Vinod Kumar Mishra, Advocate and Shri Devesh Mishra, Advocate; Shri Tarun Agrawal, Advocate and Shri Mujeeb Ahmad Siddiqui, Advocate for the petitioners and Shri Manish Goyal, learned Additional Advocate General assisted by Shri Bipin Bihari Pandey, learned Chief Standing Counsel, Shri A.K. Goyal, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel, Shri Sanjay Kumar Singh, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel, Shri Apurva Hajela, learned Standing Counsel, Shri Devesh Vikram, learned Standing Counsel, Shri Sheetala Prasad, learned Standing Counsel and Shri Vikram Bahadur Yadav, learned Standing Counsel for the State respondents.

2. All the writ petitions relate to similar facts and raise common questions of law, therefore, with the consent of the counsel for the parties, all the petitions have been