(1.) Delay condoned.
(2.) Leave granted in all these special leave petitions.
(3.) Applications for intervention are allowed as the applicants are in a position similar to that of the respondents in these appeals. Some of the applications for intervention were made after the hearing of these appeals was over and the judgment was reserved. Normally, we would not have allowed such applications. But in view of the fact that the applicants in these applications are also similarly situated and would, in any case,be governed by the ratio of the judgment, we have allowed these applications also as a special-case.