ARUN KUMAR DHARA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) 38 licensed dealers of soft coke have joined in the instant application that has been filed for writ in the nature of Mandamus and Certiorari.

(2.) In addition to this, the petitioners have filed two supplementary affidavits and the case that has been sought to be made out on behalf of the petitioners may in substance be stated as follows: The petitioners are dealers of soft coke within sub-division of Chandannagore in the District of Hoogly. The District Magistrate, Hooghly, is the licensing authority for the District under the West Bengal Soft Coke Licensing Order, 1995. Every licensee is required to obtain permit for dealing in soft coke. The permits are issued by the sub-divisional controller, Food and Supplies, Chandannagore. Initially there was no ceiling on the quantity of soft coke to be lifted against permit by a licensee but from April 1996 onwards a ceiling limit of 10 Metric Tonnes has been fixed for every permit. After obtaining the permit a licensee is required to go to the coal dump at Serampore in the office of Coal India Limited and deposited Bank Draft along with the permit and the said office issued delivery order on the basis of which the licensee is to take delivery of the soft coke from the dump and store it in his godown. Thereafter, according to the new system that has been introduced by the concerned authorities the licensees are required to take out a sale order from the sub-divisional controller, Food and Supplies for the purpose of selling the soft coke after it is lifted from the dump on the basis of delivery order issued against a permit, although there is no provision in the Soft Coke Licensing Order permitting issuance of sale order even after issuance of the permit against a valid licence. The concerned authorities have also introduced a system under which a licensee is also required to observe certain formalities before a sale order could be issued in his favour. He is to take recommendation of the councillor/commissioner or the Prodhan for Corporation, Municipality or Panchaynt areas respectively. The formalities also required the police to be informed of the recommendations. The formalities further requires a visit by an Inspector of S.C. and S.T. to the shop or godown of the licensee and his report .According to the new system, it is only after the Inspector submits his report recommending issuance of the sale order, the sale order is issued. In Panchayet area even after getting sale order from the sub-divisional controller, further sale order is required to be taken from the Block Development Officer. In case of some of the licensees, permits were issued on 20.12.94 and after compliance with the formalities, the quantities allotted by the permits, were lifted in part from March 1995 onwards but surprisingly the permits were cancelled by the concerned authority as per order No. 24/Con dated 30.5.95 so far as it related to the balance quantity of the coal allotted against these permits. Such cancellation was done without any reason being assigned or any prior notice being given to the licensee. The new formalities which have been introduced for issuance of a sale order are being implemented only in the sub-division of Chandannagore and are not being followed in other sub-divisions of the District. The cancellation of the permits referred to above was not known to the petitioners. On 4.6.96 they were asked to produce their log-books and the entries regarding cancellation were made in the log-books only on 4.6.96. Since 30.5.95 no fresh permit is being issued to the petitioners. As a result the business of the petitioners has been virtually stopped and the petitioners are suffering loss for such stoppage of business. The new formalities have got nothing to do with the object of the Control Order and the restrictions that have been imposed by those formalities are illegal, unreasonable and arbitrary and they attend Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India. The stoppage of issuance of new permit is also illegal and arbitrary. Accordingly the petitioners pray for writ of Mandamus directing the respondents concerned to act in accordance with law and to issue sale order to the petitioners without insisting on observance of the formalities referred to above and also to cancel the order dated 30.5.95 whereby the permits were cancelled in relation to the remaining parts of the quantities that were allotted against the permits but were not lifted. They have also prayed for writ of certiorari so that the impugned order No.24/con dated 30.5.95 is set aside.

(3.) Appearance was entered on behalf of all the respondents who resisted the writ petition without, however, filing any counter affidavit.