Sinha, J. -- 1. Whether settlement of a private dispute between the parties to a writ proceeding is permissible in law, is the prime question involved in these batch of appeals which arise out of judgments and orders passed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in MP No. 802 of 1992 and MCC No. 477 of 1992 and the connected writ petition.

2. The factual matrix involved in these matters may be noticed in brief:

A partnership firm known as M/s Dwarka Prasad Agarwal and Brothers (the Firm) was constituted with Dwarka Prasad Agarwal (since deceased), Bishambhar Dayal Agarwal (since deceased), Mahesh Prasad Agarwal -- all sons of Keshav Dev Agarwal and Ramesh Chandra Agarwal, son of Dwarka Prasad Agarwal in the year 1972 as partners thereof. Each partner contributed towards the capital of the Firm in shares to the extent of 25%, 30%, 30% and 15% respectively. Prior to the constitution of the Firm, a newspaper known as Dainik Bhaskar was being published by Dwarka Prasad Agarwal and his name was recorded with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (for short' 'RNI"). The said Dwarka Prasad Agarwal was the karta of a larger HUF consisting of himself and his partners. He had two wives, name