NIRBHAY KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner held a licence to run a P.D.S. shop under Gram Panchayat Kotwa in the district of East Champaran, which has been cancelled by the Sub-Divisional Officer-cum-Licensing Authority, Motihari by an order dtd. 19/9/2016. The petitioner had preferred an appeal before the District Magistrate, Motihari, giving rise to Appeal No.16/2016, which came to be rejected by an order dtd. 16/11/2018. The petitioner's revision application against the order passed by the appellate authority, registered as Revision Case No. 229/2018, has also been dismissed by an order dtd. 19/7/2021 passed by the Divisional Commissioner, Tirhut Division, Muzaffarpur. The said three orders dtd. 19/9/2016, 16/11/2018 and 19/7/2021 are under challenge in the present writ application.

(2.) We have heard Mr. Sanjay Parasmani, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner and Mr. Alok Ranjan, learned A.C. to AAG-5 for the State of Bihar. A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the State of Bihar.

(3.) The facts, which are not in dispute, are that an inspection of the petitioner's shop was conducted by the District Supply Officer on 22/7/2016 when the shop was found closed. The petitioner was put to show cause notice by the licensing authority by a letter issued under Memo No. 313 dtd. 31/8/2016 asking him to submit his explanation within 24 hours as to why his licence be not cancelled. The licensing authority in the said show cause notice mentioned certain irregularities detected during the course of inspection when the shop was found closed. It also referred to certain allegations made by the consumers relating to irregular delivery of the articles.