GUWAHATI, India, Dec. 14 -- Gauhati High Court issued the following order on Nov. 13:

1. Heard Mrs. M Hazarika, the learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. D Khan, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners in the three writ petitions. Mr. RR Gogoi, the learned Standing Counsel, PHED, appears on behalf of the respondent Nos.1, 3, 4 and 5 and Mr. A Chaliha, the learned Standing Counsel, Finance Department appears on behalf of the respondent No.2.

2. All these three writ petitions raise common questions of law and as such, they are taken up for disposal together by this common judgment and order. However, in order to deal with the claims of the petitioners in the three writ petitions, this Court finds it relevant to take note of the facts which led to the filing of the writ petitions:

WP(C)No. 4631 of 2023:

3. The petitioner No.1 herein is proprietorial firm belonging to the petitioner No.2. The said petitioners are engaged in the business of manufacturing, amongst others, UPVC Pipes and Fittings, Direct Action Hand Pumps, Casing Pipes, Ribbed Screens, etc.

4. The petitioners' industry was duly registered under Assam Preferential Stores Purchase Act, 1989 and was granted a Registration Certificate on 04.02.2014 bearing registration No.DICC/KMRP/APSP/6088. The petitioners' also applied for registration in terms with the Notification dated 29.09.2006 issued by the Ministry of Small Scale Industries, New Delhi and submitted the form of Entrepreneur Memorandum as was required.

5. The materials on record show that the petitioner No.1 commenced commercial production w.e.f. 08.02.2014 and thereupon was issued an Entrepreneur Memorandum Part II on 01.03.2014. It is also relevant to take note of that the petitioner No.1 was registered as a small scale industries, initially under the Assam Preferential Stores Purchase Act, 1989, and, thereafter under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (for short, the Act of 2006). It may not be out of place to take note of that the Assam Preferential Stores Purchase Act, 1989 was repealed by the Assam Repealing Act of 2015 and thereupon the State of Assam announced a policy in the name and style of the Assam Procurement Preference Policy, 2015.

6. The materials on record would also show that the petitioners herein were issued various work orders by the PHED Department of the Government of Assam.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=tuqye3PhFs%2BBDn75ghiOpGT0vNrx6BbQE%2FLv4zuQ4NRKigtUkkpOs15EqDC1lSKo&caseno=WP(C)/5966/2023&cCode=1&cino=GAHC010223852023&state_code=6&appFlag=)

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