BINA DAS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE award of LPG Distributorship at Hojai, District - Nagaon under Open (Women) category made by the respondent Corporation in her favour having been annulled by the judgment and order dated 23/9/2011 rendered in WP(C) No.1425/2011 instituted by the respondent No.6 herein, the appellant being aggrieved, is in appeal.

(2.) BY order dated 23.11.2011, notice had been issued in the present appeal and after hearing the learned counsel for the parties, as an interim measure, it had been directed that the aforementioned settlement would not be interfered with.

(3.) REFERRING to Clause-4.4 of the Brochure on Selection as well as Clause-2(e) of the advertisement, the respondent No.6 asserted that as at the time of submitting her (appellant) candidature her husband being a member of a "family unit" as defined in Clause-4.4 had already entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with STATFED on 20.7.2004 for operating LPG Distributorship at Hojai for a period of 10 years, she was disqualified from participating in the process and that her selection for the impugned settlement is thus obviously invalid. Further, the appellant having obtained the distributorship by furnishing wrong informations as well as by suppressing correct facts, her candidature in terms of Clause-4.5 of the said Brochure was liable to be cancelled. The respondent No.6 also averred that the appellant had offered the same plot of land, as required as per para 12 of the advertisement and para 9 of the Brochure, on which there was a godown already provided by her husband for storage of LPG cylinders of the IOC/STATFED pursuant to the agreement dated 20.7.2004. Licence No. G/EC/AS/06/230 dated 9.3.2005 issued by the Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives, Guwahati Sub-Circle Office, Guwahati granted to the Branch Manager, STATFED, Hojai Branch for possession of cylinders filled with compressed gas in the said godown was also referred to by her to indicate the identicalness of the land covered by Dag No.183, Patta No.9, Village/Town-Hojai, PS. Hojai, Nagaon on which the said godown stood. According to the respondent No.6, thereby the appellant suppressed the fact that the said land had already been allotted in favour of the STATFED by her husband, thus, rendering her candidature non-est. She also insisted that this land is covered by annual patta and recorded in the name of one Sri Prafulla Singh, son of Late Dayal Singh and Smt. Kotheloi Devi, wife of Late Dayal Singh and that neither the appellant nor any member of her family was the owner thereof though it had been mentioned in her application that the said land would be utilized for the purpose of godown for storage of LPG cylinders at Hojai. The respondent No.6, thus, alleged suppression of material facts in this regard by the appellant inspite whereof she had been selected.