AYAR JIVANBHAI SAMTABHAI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner has challenged the Notification dtd. 17/8/2022 (Annexure-A) which has been issued calling for fresh applications for opening a fair price shop insofar as village Babara, Taluka Santalpur, District Patan, contending inter alia that by virtue of a criminal case registered against the petitioner, the licence issued to the petitioner was suspended and now the criminal case having ended in acquittal during the pendency of the present petition and as such tender process should not be proceeded with.

(2.) We have heard Mr.Malav Mulani, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Ms.Shrunjal Shah, learned Assistant Government Pleader appearing for respondent Nos.1 and 2. Perused the records.

(3.) Petitioner herein was granted a licence to deal with the essential commodities by issuance of licence to run a fair price depot in the year 1999. A search-cum-raid was conducted on the fair price depot on 25/10/2010 and 3680 liters of kerosene was seized. A complaint before the jurisdictional police was filed against the Manager of the fair price depot under the Essential Commodities Act , 1981. On a report being submitted by the Mamlatdar on 2/12/2010, the licence of petitioner came to be suspended on 4/12/2010 for a period of 90 days by the District Supply Officer, Patan. For ensuring least inconvenience is caused to the card-holders, the charge of the fair price shop of petitioner was given to the nearby fair price shop on 6/12/2010. Petitioner was issued a hearing notice on 19/1/2011 and the Manager of the fair price depot was called upon to remain present along with his explanation regarding incident on 7/2/2011. The District Supply Officer passed an order on 18/3/2011 imposing fine and consequent to the suspension period getting over and fine having been paid, the Mamlatdar, Santalpur, ordered on 8/4/2011 to hand over charge back to petitioner / Manager of the fair price depot of the licence of which had been suspended and also ordered for allocating stock for public distribution. However, after six months i.e. on 1/10/2011, petitioner submitted the resignation letter through the Manager citing personal reasons and an affidavit of the Manager was also submitted regarding genuineness of the resignation submitted by petitioner. Hence, on 5/10/2011, the Mamlatdar, Santalpur, allocated the charge of petitioner's fair price shop to adjacent fair price shop and the resignation letter was forwarded to the Deputy Collector, Radhanpur, as the Deputy Collector had power to accept or reject. On 6/3/2012, the Deputy Collector informed the Mamlatdar, Santalpur, of the appropriateness in accepting the resignation during the pendency of the criminal case. This was duly replied and after consulting the jurisdictional Government Lawyer, the issue was ordered to be taken to its logical end. In the meanwhile, resolution came to be passed by the appropriate Government on 26/8/2015 to accept the resignation of the fair price shop Manager and as such, the Mamlatdar, Santalpur, was called upon to identify the new fair price shops that are eligible to be opened. Hence, notification dtd. 17/8/2022 came to be issued.