JUDGMENT

1. The petitioner in this writ application is a partnership firm and is aggrieved by an order issued vide Reference PAO/Nutan Gas Service dated 23.04.2019 under the signature of the Deputy General Manager (LPG-S), Indane Area Office, Patna, of Indian Oil Corporation (hereinafter referred to as 'the Corporation'), whereby the petitioner's distributorship has been terminated. A show cause notice dated 29.11.2017 issued by the General Manager, Bihar State Office of the Corporation, has also been put to challenge, whereby charge against the petitioner of releasing five LPG connections in favour of ineligible persons have been held to be proved. The petitioner is seeking a consequential relief after quashing of the impugned order by way of direction to the respondent Corporation to restore the petitioner's LPG distributorship, which is located at Bettiah in West Champaran, Bihar.

2. It would be relevant at this juncture to elucidate certain basic facts of the case to appreciate the true controversy, required to be addressed by this Court. Narendra Kumar Sharma, who is a partner of the firm and through whom the present writ application has been filed, was an LPG distributor and was running M/s Nutan Gas Service as sole proprietor firm, which was reconstituted into a partnership firm. A fresh agreement was executed between the Corporation and the partnership firm for running the LPG distributorship.

3. The LPG distributorships are appointed by Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and are governed by the terms and conditions of the agreement entered into between the OMCs and the distributorships. On perusal of the contents of Revised Marketing Discipline Guidelines, 2015 (RMDG 2015) for LPG Distributorship (Annexure-9), it appears that in order to ensure that the distributors follow operating policies, Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDGs) are issued. The MDGs form part and parcel of the instructions as issued from time to time under relevant clause of 'faithful performance' of the distributorship/dealership agreements. The Revised Marketing Discipline Guidelines 2015 for LPG Distributorship came into force with effect from 14.08.2015, as is clear from Annexure-9 of the writ application. Chapter 1 of the RMDG 2015 lays down the procedure for handling of LPG Cylinders by distributors, whereas Chapter-2 categorizes irregularities by LPG distributorships. Chapter-3 of the RMDG 2015 prescribes the actions which can be taken action against the distributorships under it. Chapter-4 deals with the delivery control, whereas Chapter-5 lays down the general guidelines. Various terms used in the guidelines have been defined in Chapter-6 of the RMDG 2015.

4. For the present adjudication, Chapter-2 and 3 of RMDG 2015 are relevant. In Chapter-2, irregularities by the distributorships have been classified in three major heads, namely, critical irregularities, major irregularities and minor irregularities. Chapter-3 of the RMDG 2015 provides for the action, which can be taken depending upon the nature of irregularity at the first instance of the irregularity, second instance of irregularity and third instance of irregularity. For example, third instance of critical irregularity committed by an LPG distributorship shall lead to termination of the distributorship, whereas fourth instance of major irregularity will have the consequence of termination of distributorship. Clause 3.5 of RMDG 2015 mentions that the cycle for calculating instances of irregularities shall be two years from the date of report of inspection/investigation. Meaning thereby, that if an irregularity is established and recorded in an inspection report, based on the date of the said inspection report, the records of the preceding two years period from the said date would be seen to determine whether the said irregularity is the first, second, third or fourth instance of that category of irregularity, namely, critical, major or minor. Instances of irregularities for each