HINDUSTAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION LTD. Vs. BABY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "Kindness is the language, which the deaf can hear and the blind can see", said the 18th century American Writer, Mark Twain. The exclusion of totally blind persons from participating in the tender for distributorship of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is under challenge in the writ proceeding. The learned single Judge as per judgment dated 30.05.2016 held the exclusion to be violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution, which is under challenge in this writ appeal.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are as under:

(3.) It is not in dispute that the location at Kottiyam in Kollam district was reserved for combined category belonging to Scheduled Caste i.e., SC (CC) category. It is also not in dispute that the first respondent is from the said category and is the only person, who applied from that category. It is also not in dispute that the guidelines for selection of regular LPG distributorship specify that totally blind persons will not be eligible.