( 1 ) THIS order will also govern the disposal of Misc. Petitions Nos. 154, 156 and 156, all of 1965.

( 2 ) BY these four applications under Article 226 of the Constitution Messrs. Chhotabhai Jethabhai Patel and Company, a partnership firm engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of bidies, questions the validity of tenders submitted by the respondent Messrs. Vrajlal Muljibhai and Company, Bilaspur, for the purchase of tendu leaves collected by Government or by its officers or agents in four units of certain ranges of North Bilaspur Forest Division, and seeks a direction restraining the respondents from acting in any manner on those tenders. The petitioner also prays for the issue of a direction commanding the opponents to entertain and consider the lenders it had submitted for the purchase of tendu leaves from the same units for which the aforesaid respondent had given its tenders.

( 3 ) THE matter arises thus. In 1964, the Madhya Pradesh Tendu Patta (Vyapar viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 1964, (hereinafter referred to as the Act) was enacted, "for regulating in the public interest the trade of Tendu Leaves by creation of State monopoly in such trade" Section 5 of the A