Point of Law: LPG distributorship - Declaration that the applicant had never been convicted for any charge; no charge had been framed by any Court of law for any criminal offences involving moral turpitude or an economic offence. Instead of mentioning that no charge had been framed by any Court of law, he mentioned “no office” in Hindi i.e., instead of mentioning “Nyayalay” he mentioned “Karyalay”. However, considering the said mistake as a grave one, the High Court of Patna held that the Corporation was justified in rejecting the application of the Writ Petitioner.

ORDER :

1. The petitioner seeks a writ of mandamus declaring the action of respondents in rejecting the application of the petitioner for award of Retail Outlet (RO) Dealership on Vullipalem Road in Koduru Mandal, Krishna District vide communication reference No.15454925764175 by e-mail dated 23.06.2019 on the ground of there being an inadvertent error in noting of survey number as wholly arbitrary, illegal, unjust and violative of fundamental rights and consequently direct the respondent Nos.1 to 3 to allow the candidature/application of the petitioner and permit him to make necessary correction to bring it on par with the manual application submitted by the petitioner and pass such other orders as deemed fit.

2. The petitioner’s case succinctly is thus:

(a) The respondent Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) issued notification for appointment of retail outlet at Koduru Village, Koduru Mandal, Krishna District under Schedule Caste (SC) category on 25.11.2018 vide paper publication in Eenadu Telugu daily. The petitioner belongs to Scheduled Caste (SC) community and he possessed requisite qualifications. Hence, he submitted online application dated 22.12.2018 with requisite enclosures vide reference application No.15454925764175 and also in physical form dated 13.02.2019. The 1st respondent Corporation conducted draw of lots of all applications on 06.02.2019 and selected the petitioner as eligible candidate for allotment of dealership for the above mentioned location. On 09.02.2019, the respondent Corporation sent an e-mail directing the petitioner to submit relevant documents and other information and the petitioner obliged and submitted the same on 13.02.2019 to one Mr. Srivardhan Reddy, Senior Manager, IOCL Divisional Office at Vijayawada.

(b) Thereafter, to the petitioner’s surprise and shock, on 23.06.2019 the respondent Corporation vide reference No.15454925764175 sent an e-mail to the petitioner rejecting his application/candidature on the ground that the land documents submitted by him were not valid. Upon receipt of the said e-mail, the petitioner addressed an e-mail dated 24.06.2019 seeking detailed clarification as to why his application was rejected. He received reply from the respondent Corporation directing him to coordinate with State office at Hyderabad. Therefore, the petitioner visited Divisional Office at Vijayawada on 24.06.2019 and during enquiry, he was informed that though the manual application submitted by him contains requisite information intact with regard to survey numbers and document number of the offered land, a clerical error with regard to survey numbers occurred i.e., in the column of survey number, the document number has been mentioned in the online application form, due to which his application was rejected. The respondent authorities ought to have verified his manual application and accepted his candidature. The petitioner though submitted that error was only a clerical error while filling up online application and the same was bona fide mistake and respondent did not hear him and took hypertechnical approach. There was no dispute with regard to land offered by the petitioner and it is in confirmity with the requirements under the notification as referred to the dimensions and location and as such the respondent authorities ought not to have rejected the application/candidature basing on the clerical error.

Hence, the Writ Petition.

3. Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 filed counter inter alia contending that the 1st respondent invited applications for Petrol Pump dealerships in various locations on 25.11.2018 through its online portal. Applicants are grouped into three (3) categories viz., Group 1, 2 and 3 for each location based on the type of land they are offering for the location of Petrol Pump. Group-1 – category of applicants are those having requisite land in their own name or in their family members’ name as per definition of family. In the Group-2, applicants having land not in their name or fa