JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Sri Kunal Shah for the petitioners; the learned Standing Counsel for the respondents; and have perused the record.

2. In brief the facts giving rise to this petition are as follows:

2a. The petitioners were issued character certificates on 04.02.2019 that enabled their business firms/company to be registered as approved contractors to bid for work contracts floated by the State Government. On a complaint made by one Santosh Kumar Singh, by order dated 4th June, 2020, the District Magistrate, Mau cancelled the character certificates of the petitioners on the ground that Rajnath Singh, the brother of the petitioner no.1, the brother-in-law of the petitioner no.2 and paternal uncle of the petitioners no.3 and 4, is a person with criminal antecedents and that the petitioners' firms were being used just as a facade to enable Rajnath Singh to bag Government contracts as he himself would not have otherwise been eligible, being a person with criminal antecedents. It was also stated in the cancellation order that the petitioners had obtained character certificates by suppressing material facts.

2b. Challenging the order of cancellation of character certificates, Writ-C No.10