Court No. - 2
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 3139 of 2019 Petitioner :- Usha Rani And Another Respondent :- State Of U P And 7 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Vinay Sharma,Krishna Mohan Asthana Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Suneet Kumar,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for one to seventh respondents.
Notice need not be issued to the eighth respondent in view of the order proposed to be passed.
Petitioner a fair price shop dealer is assailing the order dated 26 December 2018 passed by the sixth respondent, District Supply Officer, District Muzaffarnagar, U.P., whereby, the licence of the dealer has been cancelled and an additional relief assailing the notification/press release published for allotment/appointment of fair price shop dealer is sought.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that a first information report was lodged all over Uttar Pradesh on allegation that Aadhar Cards of ration card holders was misused thereby manipulating the food supply meant for the beneficiaries, consequently, first information report came to be lodged against the petitioners being Crime Case No. 626 of 2018. It is urged by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the impugned order is merely repetition of the allegation made in the first information report; no personal hearing was given to the petitioner before passing the order. In support of his submission reliance has been placed on decisions rendered in Brijsewak Gupta vs. State of U.P. and others (Writ-C No. 10672 of 2017) and M/s Narendra Singh vs. State of U.P. and others (Writ-C No. 43429 of 2018), as well as, decision of Full Bench in Puran Singh vs. State of U.P. and others, 2010 (3) ADJ 659 (FB).
Learned Standing Counsel submits that the order is appealable, licence of the petitioner was suspended, thereafter, pursuant to show cause notice petitioners submitted their written reply which was duly considered by the competent authority and thereafter, the impugned order has been passed. It is noted in the impugned order that Aadhar Cards were misused by the petitioners by fraud and manipulation, three Aadhar Cards mentioned, therein, was used 45, 17 and 44 times respectively. A finding has been returned that on 106 occasions the ration cards was misused resulting in massive diversification of foodgrains supply from the beneficiaries to the black market.
I have perused the decisions relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioner, the Full Bench in Puran Singh (supra) was considering the question whether before suspension of fair price agreement an opportunity of hearing is mandatory. The Full Bench decision is not applicable to the facts of the case, the impugned order is a final order passed in proceedings initiated after suspending the licence. The decisions rendered in Brijsewak Gupta (supra) and M/s Narendra Singh (supra) is also not applicable in the facts of the present case as the authority while deciding the notice has considered the allegations against the petitioner on merit and has returned a finding of fact. It is not the case that the licence of the petitioners was suspended merely on the lodging of first information report. On the contrary on perusal of the impugned order, it is reflected that the order has been passed on merit after hearing the petitioner.
On specific query, learned counsel for the petitioner failed to point out any illegality, infirmity or jurisdictional in the impugned order.
In view thereof, I do not find any merit in the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner.
The writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed with liberty to the petitioners to take remedy against the impugned order before the appropriate forum, in accordance with law, if so advised.
Order Date :- 29.1.2019 S.Prakash