Violation of Principles of Natural Justice due to failure to provide specific allegations and names of complainants, denying the petitioner a reasonable opportunity to defend himself.

1. The order of the Licensing Authority, as contained in Annexure-1, by which PDS dealer licence of the petitioner has been cancelled, is under challenge in this writ application.

2. The specific ground of challenge to the order is that the enquiry report submitted by the Block Supply Officer, Paliganj on the basis of which the impugned order has been passed, was not supplied to him. It is submitted that show cause notice which was issued to the petitioner, as contained in Annexure-2, refers to the enquiry report and complaint of the beneficiaries against the petitioner in different respects. However, show cause notice does not disclose specific names of the beneficiaries who had lodged complaint before the authority or had made statements before the Enquiry Officer levelling such allegations against petitioner.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that notice issued on the basis of an enquiry report is totally vague and copy of the enquiry report was also not enclosed with the notice to substantiate the allegations against the petitioner incorporated in the notice.

4. After going through the notice, this Court finds that in respect of many allegations, statements of beneficiaries were referred but their names have not been disclosed. Obviously, unless and until petitioner comes to know about the specific allegations of the particular beneficiary, he cannot be in a position to meet the said allegation or to produce evidence in defence that the allegation of particular beneficiary was false. Thus, apparently, petitioner was denied reasonable opportunity to meet the allegations levelled against him. The impugned order, therefore, suffers from violation of Principles of Natural Justice. The same is, accordingly, quashed with a direction to the Sub-Divisional Officer, Paliganj, Patna to serve a copy of the enquiry report along with details of allegations and allegation-makers to the petitioner giving him a reasonable time to file a reply and thereafter to pass fresh orders in accordance with law.

5. This application is allowed in the manner, as indicated above.