(1.) The five appeals enlisted above are being disposed of by this common judgment and order, for, all these appeals have arisen out of the common judgment and order, dated 31.05.2004, whereby as many as nine writ petitions were disposed of, all these appeals have posed the common questions of law based on identical facts and have been heared together.
(2.) We have heard Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned Senior counsel, assisted by Mr. S. Shyam, learned counsel, appearing on behalf of the petitioner-appellants in Writ Appeal Nos. 240/2004, 239/2004, 350/2004 and 354/2004 which have arisen out of WP(C) Nos. 1552/2002, 7008/2000, 6965/2002 and 137/2000 respectively, and Mr. K.P. Pathak, learned Additional Solicitor General assisted by Mr. U. Bhuyan, learned counsel, appearing on behalf of the respondents in the four Appeals aforementioned. We have also heard Mr. K.P. Pathak, learned Additional Solicitor General, assisted by Mr. U. Bhuyan, learned counsel, appearing on behalf of the appellant in Writ Appeal No. 306/2004, which has arisen out of WP(C) 7008/2000 aforementioned, and Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned Senior Counsel, assisted by Mr. P. Upadhaya, learned counsel for the respondents in Writ Appeal No. 306/2004.
(3.) For a better appreciation of the issues involved in the present set of writ appeals, we set out hereinbelow, in brief, the facts of each of the writ petitions, the stand of the Revenue and also the reasons, which have led to the preferring of these appeals by both the petitioners as well as the respondents. FACTS (i) WP (C) 1552/2000 ;