1. Petitioner no.1 is a partnership firm and petitioner no. 2 is one of its partners. The petitioners are aggrieved by the termination of dealership for K. oil for Dehri-on-Sone given to petitioner no.1 (on an ad-hoc, stop-gap basis) and the discontinuance of supply of oil by the respondent Oil Company, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. They seek a direction to the respondents to restore the dealership to the firm and the supply of K. oil to it.

2. The dealership of K. oil for Dehri-on-Sone was initially given to one Dinanath Prasad. He happened to be the sole dealer of K. oil for Dehri-on-Sone for the respond-ent oil company. He died. In such cases normally the dealership is given to the heirs and legal representatives left behind by the dealer. But in this case his wife Mrs. Triveni Devi declined to accept the dealership and to carry on the business. A situation was, thus, created where there-was no K. oil dealer of the respondent company at Dehri-on-Sone. It naturally caused dislocation of supply of K. oil, which is an essential commodity, to the general public and in those circumstances the district administration as well as the petroleum company were required to ma