HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.40130 of 2014 Date:27.12.2014 Between:
Chenchala Chittemma, W/o R.Gopal Rao . Petitioner And:
The State of A.P., reptd by its Principal Secretary, Civil Supplies Department, Hyderabad and two others.
. Respondents Counsel for the Petitioner: Sri A.Ravi Shankar Counsel for the Respondent: AGP for Civil Supplies (AP) The Court made the following:
ORDER:
This Writ Petition is filed for a Mandamus to set aside memo No.148/2014 CS, dated 20.09.2014, issued by respondent No.3, whereby he has replaced the petitioner with an in-charge dealer only on the purported ground that he has committed certain irregularities in distribution of essential commodities.
At the hearing, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Civil Supplies (Andhra Pradesh) has fairly conceded that respondent No.3 has no jurisdiction to issue the impugned proceeding as, he is not the appointing authority.
In my opinion, respondent No.3 has acted in a highly illegal manner by clutching at the jurisdiction which is not vested with him. Under the Andhra Pradesh State Public Distribution System (Control) Order, 2008, it is only respondent No.2, who is the appointing authority, who is vested with the jurisdiction to suspend, vary or cancel the authorization of a fair price shop dealer. Unless such power is exercised and the authorization of fair price shop dealer is suspended, varied or cancelled, he/she cannot be replaced with another dealer, more so, only for the reason that the proceedings under Section 6-A of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 have been initiated against him/her.
In this view of the matter, the Writ Petition is allowed and the impugned memo, dated 20.09.2014, issued by respondent No.3 is set aside. Respondent No.3 is saddled with costs of Rs.5,000/- payable from his personal money for passing a patently illegal order.
As a sequel to disposal of the Writ Petition, W.P.M.P.No.50324 of 2014 filed by the petitioner for interim relief is disposed of as infructuous.
27th December 2014 DR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY