(1.) Leave granted in SLP @ Nos. 18030-18031/01 and SLP @ Nos. 18231-18232/2001.
(2.) This judgment will dispose of a group of fourteen civil appeals by special leave. Since common questions of law have been involved in all these appeals, it is appropriate to deal with and decide them by a common judgment.
(3.) We will confine ourselves only to the facts of Civil Appeals 4117-4118/2001 for the facts of this appeal are similar to the facts of the other appeals comprised in this group.