- (1.) By these petitions, the petitioners have approached this Court challenging validity of the Shivraj Fine Art Litho Works (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertaking) Act, 1984 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") being unconstitutional. The petitioners have, in the alternative, prayed for striking down Sections 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 16, 18, 19, 20 and 24 of the Act.
(2.) The facts giving rise to the present petitions, in brief, are as under : The petitioner M/s. Shivraj Fine Art Litho Works, which is a partnership firm, was constituted originally by eight partners. Since dispute arose between the partners, the partnership firm came to be dissolved in January 1974. A suit for dissolution of partnership and for accounts was filed in 1974 being Special Civil Suit No. 9/1974, which is pending before the competent Civil Court. In the said suit, Receivers came to be appointed from time to time in respect of properties of the partnership firm. The partnership firm owns several properties. One of the properties was Industrial Unit, known as M/s. Shivraj Fine Art Litho Works, which is situated near Cotton Market, Nagpur (hereinafter referred to as the "industrial undertaking"). The said industrial undertaking was engaged in the business of lithography and printing and employed about 500 workers.
(3.) Apart from the said property, the petitioners also owned several other properties which, according to petitioners, had no connection with the industrial undertaking, which are as under : (a) Dhanwatey Chambers a non business building situated on Malviya Road, Sitabuldi, Nagpur, (b) Dhanwatey Chamber Annexe, situated just behind the Dhanwatey Chambers, (c) Two Ghat Road buildings, one behind the other with vast open land situated in the vicinity of Cotton Market, Nagpur, (d) An old House situated at Khandoba Galli in Sanichara, Nagpur. It is the contention of the petitioners that the above properties were never used for the purpose of industrial undertaking.;