MONALISA BANERJEE MAJUMDAR Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both the writ petitions involved similar issues of fact and law arising out of the same transaction and hence have been taken up together for hearing and disposal.

(2.) The petitioner submitted her application for distributorship of Fair Price Shop, along with the requisite documents and application fees against a vacancy notification dtd. 1/9/2022 by the Director, Directorate of District Distribution, Procurement and Supply, Food and Supplies Department, Government of West Bengal, (DDP&S), for filling up of vacancy under Block-Barasat-II, Sub-Division-Barasat in the District of North 24 Parganas. The petitioner submitted the said application on 17/10/2022. On 15/12/2022, the petitioner was informed that a spot inquiry would be conducted on 21/12/2022 at 12:30 P.M. The inquiry was conducted accordingly, and the petitioner states that she had fulfilled all the requisite criteria for the same and that the area inspector was satisfied with the godown-cum-shop. However, a copy of the inquiry report was not provided to the petitioner, for which she had submitted an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005. Nonetheless, the authority had refused to hand over the report.

(3.) The petitioner contends that before the amendment of the 2013 Order, the applicants submitted their application in the office of the concerned District Controller, but after the amendment, the respondent authority introduced the submission of application on the official website of the respondent authority for the transparent selection of the applicants, but in this case, the respondent authority, themselves have failed to adhere to the rules made by them. She argues that according to Paragraph 26 of the 2013 Order, the procedure for the engagement of a distributor is supposed to be concluded within a stipulated time. As a result, she expected that the entire process of selection would be concluded within a stipulated time after the last date of submission of the application, but despite the expiry of more than four months from the enquiry by the inspection team, the selection process has been kept pending.