Final price fixation by public authorities must be reasonable, timely, and based only on relevant development costs.

A statutory or public authority fixing a final price under a lease-cum-sale arrangement must act on relevant considerations, within the statutory framework, and within a reasonable time. The text states that a State instrumentality cannot use tentative allotment terms to impose unrelated development costs on earlier allottees or make a belated price fixation that renders the promise of action "as soon as" meaningless. Such pricing is described as arbitrary, unreasonable, without authority of law, and inconsistent with Article 14.

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Issues: Whether the Board could validly fix the final price of the allotted industrial sites after an inordinate delay and include development costs unrelated to the particular allottees, and whether such fixation was arbitrary and violative of Article 14.

Analysis: The lease-cum-sale clause empowering the Board to fix the final price did not confer an unfettered right to act arbitrarily or irrationally. Even where the price was described as tentative at the time of allotment, the power to determine the final price had to be exercised within the statutory framework and in accordance with the constitutional mandate of fairness and reasonableness. The Court held that the Board, being a State instrumentality, was bound by Article 14 and could not saddle earlier allottees with the burden of costs incurred for developing other sites or later phases of the industrial area. It also found that fixing the final price after a gap of 13 years made the expression "as soon as" in the agreement meaningless and exceeded the permissible scope of the contractual power.

Conclusion: The final price fixation was held to be without authority of law, arbitrary, unreasonable, and unconstitutional.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed because the enhanced demands could not be sustained in law and the High Court's interference with the Board's pricing decision was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory or public authority empowered to fix a final price under a contract or regulation must exercise that power reasonably, on relevant considerations, and within a reasonable time; a fixation that is arbitrary or shifts unrelated development burdens to allottees violates Article 14 and is liable to be struck down.

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