MANI RAM Vs. INDIAN OIL CORPORATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this petition, the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:-

(2.) Case of the petitioner is that pursuant to an advertisement dated 13.08.2017 issued in various newspapers including "Amar Ujala" for allotment of LPG distributorship at Pangana, Tehsil Karsog, District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh under the reserved category {SC(GP) } for Durgam Kshetriy Vitarak, he applied for the same as he fulfilled the eligibility criteria. According to the petitioner, in the advertisement, there was priority list and as per that priority list, preference was to be inter alia given to disabled person of armed forces or Central Paramilitary Forces/Central or State Sub Forces and also to the persons residing in the concerned Gram Panchayat. According to the petitioner, he being an Ex-serviceman applied for allotment of LPG Distributorship for location Pangana, Block Karsog, District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. As per averments made in the petition, petitioner's application was duly scrutinized by the respondent-Corporation in accordance with the priority list and as the petitioner was found lone eligible candidate in the inter se priority list, award letter dated 07.01.2018 was issued in his favour. His grievance is that thereafter vide impugned communication dated 23rd March, 2018, Annexure P-7, his selection for LPG Distributorship for location Pangana, District Mandi, HP under SC(GP) category was cancelled on the ground that in the course of field verification of the credentials of the petitioner, it was observed that information provided by him in the application form was wrong as he was not the resident of Gram Panchayat Pangana which he had wrongly mentioned in his application at Sr. No. 3(d) , and this amounted to providing false information, which had resulted in his wrong selection for the site in issue. According to the petitioner, he had not supplied any false information as alleged in the impugned communication and the mentioning of 'Pangana' against the column of 'Gram Panchayat' at Serial No. 3(d) of application form, Annexure P3, was a typographical error committed by the typist who had typed his application form and this was just a bona fide error and accordingly, the petitioner has prayed for the reliefs already mentioned above.

(3.) Having heard the learned Counsel for the petitioner and perused the contents of the advertisement as well as other annexures appended with the petition including the application form, this Court is of the considered view that there is no infirmity with the impugned communication. Admittedly, the petitioner is not a resident of Gram Panchayat Pangana, but is a resident of Gram Panchayat 'Upper Behli', Tehsil Sunder Nagar, District Mandi. Learned Counsel for the petitioner during the course of his submissions did not dispute the fact that Gram Panchayat Pangana was part of Tehsil Karsog and not part of Tehsil Sunder Nagar. He did not even dispute the fact that as per terms of the advertisement, preference was to be given to an applicant who was a resident of Gram Panchayat concerned where the selection of the LPG Distributorship was to be made and the said Gram Panchayat was Gram Panchayat 'Pangana'. In our considered view, this demonstrates that it is not so innocuous that Pangana was typed against Gram Panchayat in column/Sr. No. 3(d) of the form, which contains the particulars of the applicant. It is apparent that the name of Pangana as Gram Panchayat was mentioned by the petitioner for reflecting himself to be a resident of Gram Panchayat Pangana as the same obviously conferred advantage upon him for being considered for allotment of dealership in question. His submission that it is a typographical error is also not acceptable. The applicant is a literate man and further as per Sr. No. 3(d) , an applicant was to make a declaration that on verification by the Oil Company, if any information so given by the applicant was found false/ misrepresented, then the candidature of the candidate was liable to be cancelled.