M.Katju, J. - (1.) Petitioner No. 1 is a company registered under the Indian Companies Act, which is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling various kinds of paper and pulps. It has its registered office in Bombay and its factory is in Maharashtra. In the course of business, the Petitioner Company entered Into contracts with the Government of Uttar Pradesh for supplying papers as required by the State Government. The petitioner has got itself registered with the Directorate of Industries. Uttar Pradesh vide Annexue-5 to the petition. The petitioner sells papers manufactured by it infer alia to the book publishers in U. P. who sell the prescribed textbooks for students. In this connection the State Government invited tenders for the printing of the prescribed books. True copy of the notice inviting tenders is Annexure-6 to the petition. The petitioner has contended that it has a right to be considered for supply of paper to the book publishers, but it has been Illegally excluded by clause (3) of the impugned order dated 20.5.1998.
(2.) The petitioner has basically raised two objections regarding the impugned order. The first grievance is that the State Government has provided that only I.S.I. mark paper can be supplied. The learned Addl. Advocate General has clarified this aspect during the course of arguments before us. He submitted that the above condition only requires that the paper should be of I.S.I, standard and it should have the water mark of the mill manufacturing the paper. He submitted that there is no necessity of any mark by the I.S.I. on the paper. Since the parties are agreed on this no further direction Is required by us on this point, and we clarify that there is no necessity of any I.S.I. mark on the paper and the only requirement is that it should be of I.S.I. standard and it should have the water mark of the mill manufacturing it.
(3.) The second and more important grievance of the petitioner relates to clause (3) of the impugned G.O. The said clause states that only mills of U. P. will be allowed to supply such paper. In our opinion, this condition is clearly violative of Articles 301, 303 and 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution.;