ORDER :

1. The present writ petition is filed seeking to declare the action of respondent No. 2 (Bureau of Immigration) in issuing and continuing a Look Out Circular (hereinafter referred to as ‘LOC’) against the petitioner on request of respondent No. 3 as illegal, arbitrary and violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India and the Passports Act, 1967.

2. Heard Mr. V. Murali Manohar, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Gadi Praveen Kumar, learned Deputy Solicitor General of India appearing on behalf of respondent Nos.1 and 2, Mr. Alluri Krishnam Raju, learned Standing Counsel for the State Bank of India appearing on behalf of respondent No. 3 and Mr. N. Nagendran, learned Special Public Prosecutor for CBI appearing on behalf of respondent No. 4.

3. For the sake of convenience and unless stated otherwise, wherever the term ‘petitioner’ is used it shall refer to the actual petitioner herein i.e., Haridass Ramesh, the company of which he is a managing director i.e., Nandini Industries Pvt. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘NIPL’) and M/s Techtrans Construction KCPL JV in which he held 50% shareholding.

4. Facts of the case:

(i) The parties have raised various factua