AKHTAR ALI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petition the grievance of the petitioner is that his licence issued under Bihar Trade Articles (Licences Unification) ,Order, 1984 (hereinafter referred to as Unification Order) has been cancelled without any show cause and without providing him with a copy of the order as also the refusal to renew his licence under the said Unification Order.

(2.) From the show cause filed by the Sub-Divisional Officer, West Muzaffarpur, it appears that under an agreement the petitioner was allowed to act as the agent of the Government under the public distribution system. The agreement provided allotment of food-stuff for the purpose of its distribution to card holders and others. One of the clauses of the agreement is termination of the said agreement to act as an agent of the Government without any notice and or show cause.

(3.) It is said, that on receipt of complaint in the matter of dealing with the distribution of the Government food-stuffs to the consumers, an enquiry was held in presence of the dealer where many consumers, were examined. The Block Supply Officer, Parc, submitted an enquiry report to the Sub-Divisional Officer, West Muzaffarpur on 19-9-87 in which he had stated that in spite of several oral warnings to the dealer he paid no need to the warnings. It is said for this reason the licence of the dealer was cancelled on 16-12-87 by the Sub-Divisional Officer, West Muzaffarpur vide letter No. 486, dated 21-12-87 and the petitioner was informed of this cancellation on 20-12- 87. The petitioner refused to receive the cancellation order after going through the contents of the order and his refusal is mentioned with a note, dated 26-12-87 by the peon Gangdeo Singh of Paroo Anchal. It is denied that the Petitioner was verbally informed about the cancellation and that the authorities were reluctant to supply him a copy of the cancellation order.