LAXMAN PRASAD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri S.K.Tyagi, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Vivek Singh, the learned counsel for the Railways.

(2.) Petitioner is a scheduled caste and was granted a licence for running a Stall on the platform at Jhansi Railway station in the year 1970. Since then, the licence was being renewed from time to time.

(3.) In the year 1994, the Railway Board proposed to regulate the allotment of the licences through a policy decision and, based on such policy, the petitioner was again granted a licence in the year 1997 for a period of 3 years. An agreement was executed and the licence fee was required to be paid by the petitioner annually. In the year 2005, the policy was again revised and reservation was also provided for the allotment of stalls to scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and O.B.C. categories. In the year 2007 a new policy dated 17.12.2007 was enforced whereby the Railways thought it fit to allot the stalls through an open tender system. No provision was made for renewal of the existing licence as per the earlier policy. In this regard, the Railway authorities sought clarification from the Railway Board. A clarification dated 4.8.2008 was issued indicating that existing licence holders shall be allowed to continue till the period of the licence and that thereafter new licence would be issued as per the new policy of 2007. This clarification did not indicate renewal of the existing licencees in the reserved categories and, accordingly a fresh clarification was given by the Railway Board on 20.5.2009 indicating that the policy of 17.12.2007 does not prohibit the renewal of the licence of the existing licence holders belonging to the reserved categories. The Railway Board accordingly directed the authorities to consider such proposal pending with them for granting renewal of these licences. For facility, the extract of the clarification issued by the Railway Board dated 20.5.2009 is extracted hereunder :-