Court No. - 38
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 36142 of 2018 Petitioner :- M/S Rajghat Petro Point And Another Respondent :- The Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- Ramendra Asthana,Shashi Prakash Rai Counsel for Respondent :- Pramod Kumar Rai
Hon'ble Abhinava Upadhya,J. Hon'ble Ajay Bhanot,J.
Heard Sri Ramendra Asthana, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri R.N.Sanghi and learned counsel holding brief of Sri Sri Pramod Kumar Rai, learned counsel for the respondents.
By means of this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed that against the cancellation of his dealership for retail outlet of the Indian Oil Corporation he has filed an appeal on 01.6.2017 before the Executive Director (Retail Sales), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. which is the appellate authority under the rules. The said rules were subsequently amended on 3.8.2018, namely, amendment of Marketing Discipline Guidelines, 2012 and formation of Disputes Redressal Panel under the amendment Rules now instead of Executive Director. A panel has been constituted consisting of a retired judge of the High Court, a retired Government servant who held post not below the rank of Joint Secretary in the Government of India or equivalent rank and a retired official of PSU Oil Marketing Companies who held the post not below the rank of Director. Further condition is that for filing an appeal statutory amount of Rs.5 Lakhs has to be deposited for the appeal to be heard.
Sri Ramendra Asthana, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that he had filed the appeal before the Chairman of the Corporation before the amendment and the Division Bench of this Court in Writ Petition No.25323 of 2010, M/s. Nidhuli Kalan Diesels Vs. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and another in judgement and order dated 23.10.2018 has held that the statutory requirement of deposit of Rs.5 Lakhs will only be applicable to such appeals, which are filed after the amendment in the rules and no such demand can be made for the appeals, which were filed prior to the amendment and therefore, the appeal has to be transferred to the newly constituted appellate panel to be heard and decided.
Sri R.N.Sanghi, learned counsel holding brief of Sri Pramod Kumar Rai, learned counsel for the respondents No.1 and 2 does not dispute the aforesaid fact.
That being the case, the writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the appellate authority to consider and decide the appeal of the petitioner without insisting on deposit of Rs.5 Lakhs as has been held by the aforesaid judgement in M/s. Nidhuli Kalan Diesels (supra).
Order Date :- 30.10.2018 Ashish Tripathi (Ajay Bhanot,J .) (Abhinava Upadhya,J.)