Court No. - 54
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 65314 of 2012 Petitioner :- Abid Ali Alias Abid Hussain Respondent :- State Of U.P. And Others Counsel for Petitioner :- P.K. Kashyap Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Mazhar Ullah
Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing counsel.
By means of the present petition the petitioner has questioned the order dated 5.7.2011 whereby the fair price shop license of the petitioner has been cancelled. The appeal preferred before the appellate authority has also come to be dismissed on 30.10.2012.
The sole ground on the basis of which the fair price shop license of the petitioner has been cancelled is that the petitioner had failed to distribute the kerosene oil to the APL Card-holders for the month of April. It has been stated that the petitioner admitted during enquiry that he could not make public announcement for distribution of kerosene oil for the month of April, however, there is no such finding to the effect that the distribution register containing such entry regarding distribution of kerosene oil to the ration card holders contained any entry or not, whereas of course, a finding has come to the effect that there were as many as twenty APL card holders whose ration card did not bear the entries.
What is very surprising is that the petitioner has filed a certificate issued by the Supply Officer issued on Form-B whereby the Administrative Committee has permitted for lifting the stock of kerosene oil for the month May after verifying the distribution for the month of April. Specific averment has come to be made in paragraph-10 of the writ petition regarding such certificate and in reply thereto vide paragraph-7 in the counter affidavit, it has been stated that the said fact may be verified from the records. Yet another aspect of the matter is that the enquiry report which has been heavily relied upon by the prescribed authority, seems to have never been supplied to the petitioner and there is no such recital in the order nor, show cause notice has been annexed along with the counter affidavit to establish that the copy of the enquiry report was ever supplied to the petitioner.
In such circumstances, therefore, in the considered opinion of the Court the procedure adopted for cancelling the fair price shop license are not in tune with the Control Order, 2004 read with Government Order, 2004 and the mandate contained in the Full Bench judgment in the case of Puran Singh Vs. State of U.P. and others AIR 2011 All, 73.
In view of the above, the orders passed by the prescribed authority dated 5.7.2011 and that of the appellate authority dated 30.10.2012 are hereby quashed and the matter is remitted to the prescribed authority to decide afresh in the light of the judgment of Full Bench of this Court in the case of Puran Singh (supra) and Akshay Lal Rai Vs. State of U.P.( Writ C No. 60362 of 2013 decided on 29.4.2019) and such exercise shall be carried out positively within a period of three months from the date of production of certified copy of the order.
However, it is made clear that that status of the shop in question whether under fresh allotment or under attachment shall continue and shall abide by the ultimate order to be passed by the prescribed authority as directed hereinabove.
Order Date :- 30.7.2019 Nadeem Ahmad