SRI ALOKA CHANDRA BISHOI S/O LATE SOMANATH BISHOI AND ORS. Vs. STATE OF ORISSA REPRESENTED BY THE COMMISSIONER-CUM-SECRETARY, DEPTT. OF FOOD SUPPLIES AND CONSUMER WELFARE AND ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present writ application, in the nature of public interest litigation, has been filed with a prayer for quashing the instruction/guideline/letter dated 23.09.2010 (Annexure -3) issued by the Chief Secretary, Orissa for verification of ration cards in circulation under Public Distribution System at the Fair Price Shops. The further prayer of the Petitioners is for a direction to opposite parties to carry out verification of the said ration cards on door to door basis for elimination of bogus cards and to find out the citizens entitled for new ration cards under Public Distribution System ( in short, "P.D.S.").

(2.) THE Petitioners' case in a nutshell is that they are residents of Bhubaneswar. Petitioner No. 1 is a small retail seller of snacks and Petitioner No. 5 is an Auto Driver whereas rest of the Petitioners are daily workers. All the Petitioners have been issued with voter identity cards by the Election Commission of India. The annual average income of all the Petitioners vary from Rs. 40,000/ - to Rs. 60,000/ - and though all of them are coming under below poverty line, unfortunately none of the Petitioners is issued with appropriate ration cards and as such they are deprived of getting commodities and other benefits available under the P.D.S. for various categories such as APL, BPL, AAY & AP. The State Government has not made any effort to conduct enquiry and verification during the last 15 years though a lot of changes have taken place in the economic status or otherwise of the citizens of the State. Some of them have died, some of them have been deprived of their income/lost their livelihood; some of them have become destitute, some of them have lost their property; whereas some have become major citizens and have acquired properties by earning their livelihood in the meantime. Since these economical changes have not been looked into/verified by the State Government for the last 15 years to bring them into the benefits of appropriate P.D.S., a large number of citizens including the Petitioners in the State are deprived of getting the benefits under the P.D.S. In spite of repeated approaches to the appropriate authority of the State Government, no new ration cards have been issued to such citizens, thereby they are deprived of getting the benefits under the P.D.S.

(3.) MR . M.S. Panda, learned Counsel appearing for the Petitioners submitted that if verification of ration cards is carried out as directed by opposite party No. 2, Chief Secretary to Government of Orissa under Annexure -3 on the dates of distribution of essential commodities at each Fair Price Shop, then the aim and object of the order passed by the Supreme Court would be frustrated as thereby no new ration cards would be issued to the eligible/entitled citizens including the Petitioners. The direction of the apex Court issued under Annexure -1 would be complied if the appointed verifying officers would conduct verification from door to door of the citizens so that persons having no ration cards would be detected at the spot by collecting information about their category of status from their next door neighbours. Therefore, instead of carrying out verification of ration cards at the Fair Price Shop such verification should be conducted from door to door basis so that eligible citizens including the Petitioners who have not been issued with the new ration cards can be issued with such cards and brought in to the benefits of the P.D.S. According to Mr. Panda, due to non -verification and non -issuance of various categories of ration cads to the eligible and entitled citizens for the last several years, huge quantity of food grains remained in the stock and such food grains are ultimately being wasted. Therefore, in order to provide the benefits of PDS to eligible categories of citizens there should be regular verification and new cards should be issued to them every year. Although the PDS order provides for annual verification and preparation of a list of beneficiaries, yet the State Government has failed to comply with the same as no verification has been conducted for the last 15 years as a result of which, 2.5 lakhs bogus cards are in circulation in the State.