RANANJOY BHATTACHARYA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The controversy involved in this proceeding arises out of a selection process initiated by a notice published by the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd., (HPCL) inviting applications for appointment of dealers in respect of various retail outlets for petroleum products in different parts of this State. The dispute in this proceeding relates to a location disclosed against serial No. 21 in the list of sites disclosed in the advertisement. The location is described as "Bhojerhat between KM stone 15-17 on SH3" in the district of 24 parganas (south). The requirements which individual applicants were required to fulfill were disclosed in the said notice itself in a form of notes. In this proceeding, the subject of controversy revolves around Clause VII of these notes relating to location requirement. This clause stipulates:-

(2.) The respondent No. 8 had been selected for this retail outlet and notice of appointment has been given to him. The writ petitioner alleges that selection of respondent No. 8 was improper in that there was no compliance of the provisions of IRC 12/2009 pertaining to the site offered by the respondent No. 8. IRC12/2009 is the title given to guidelines for access, location and layout of a roadside fuel stations and service stations formulated by the Indian Roads Congress in the year 2009. No specific violation of individual norms contained in the IRC 12/2009 has been pointed out in the writ petition. In course of hearing, however, learned counsel for the petitioners sought to make out a case that there was violation of Clause 4.5.1 of this Code which stipulates:-

(3.) Prior to filing of the writ petition, query was raised by the petitioner with the special Public Information Officer ADM(G) office of the District Magistrate, south 24 parganas under the provisions of section 6 of the Right to Information Act 2005 seeking information on various counts pertaining to selection in respect of the retail outlet at the said location. Two of these queries could be connected to the stipulations of Clause 4.5, which are:-