Court No. - 1
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 38699 of 2019 Petitioner :- Sudha Singh Respondent :- Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rajesh Kumar Shukla Counsel for Respondent :- Pramod Kumar Rai
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard Sri R.K. Shukla, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri P.K. Rai, learned counsel for the respondent corporation and perused the record.
By means of this petition under article 226 of the constitution, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 3rd of September, 2019 passed by the competent authority of the corporation whereby the candidature of the petitioner for allotment of the retail outlet dealership of the petroleum product has been rejected and the ground shown is that the petitioner does not belong to the advertised category.
The argument advanced by learned counsel for the petitioner is that no reason has been assigned as to why the petitioner has been held to be not belonging to the advertised category. He, therefore, submits that the order impugned is absolutely non speaking and cryptic one that cannot be sustained in law. He has drawn our attention to a Division Bench judgment of this Court in the case of Ansar Ali vs. Union of India & others in Writ-C No. 24484 of 2019 in which this Court has categorically held that the authorities are bound under law to pass reasoned and speaking order and the manner in which the order impugned has been passed by the corporation in this case, is identical to the order passed in that case which was quashed.
Learned counsel for the respondent corporation does not dispute the above legal and factual position. However, he submits that he has documents to support the order.
It is well settled law that an order has to be tested for the reasons assigned therein and no amount of any affidavit or any document brought on record can justify the order so passed.
In view of the above, the writ petition succeeds and is allowed.
The order dated 3rd of September, 2019 annexed as annexure-6 to the writ petition, is hereby quashed.
The matter is remitted to the authority concerned to revisit the issue in the light of the directions contained in judgment passed in Writ-C No. 24484 of 2019 Ansar Ali vs. Union of India and others.
(Ajit Kumar, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.) Order Date :- 28.11.2019 Shiraz