Mr. Justice C.M. Nayar, Chairman—The present proceedings arose out of a complaint filed by one Shri Rajendra Jain Nagda. A Notice of Enquiry was issued by the Commission by an order dated 24.5.2000. The Preliminary Investigation Report has been placed on record. The respondent is stated to be a LPG Dealer of Indian Oil Corporation at Nagda. The complainant has alleged that the respondent has sold a LPG cylinder at a higher price than the approved/authorised price fixed by the Indian Oil Corporation. The complainant referred to the inspection of respondent’s godown conducted by the District Food and Civil Supply Department on 9.1.1997. The inspection revealed that the respondent had sold 49 cylinders without issuing any bills to the unauthorised/unregistered consumers. The prevailing price of gas cylinder was Rs. 138.75 and at the time of spot inspection it was found that the respondent had sold 300 cylinders at a price of Rs. 140/- . The averment is made that after taking into consideration rebate of Rs. 2/- the effective price of the cylinder works out to Rs. 136.75 and the respondent over charged Rs. 3.25 per cylinder.

2. The respondent filed reply to the Notice of Enquiry and stated at the outset that the complainant Shri Rajendra Jain is a journalist who is noted amongst other things for blackmailing. He keeps asking for advertisement and donations for his newspaper and allegedly was known for extorting money in the town. Therefore, the respondent was complained against and the present proceedings arose out of such considerations. We may refer the conclusions and recommendations as arrived at in the Preliminary Investigation Report as follows :

“The present complaint dates back to three years which was examined by the local authorities concerned and closed. During the course of the investigation certain fresh material was garnered which has also been considered while arriving at our conclusions. The original complaint for which the Hon’ble Commission had issued order of investigation has been duly examined and our findings have been presented (in detail in the previous pages in the relevant sections). The complaint has also been duly investigated by the concerned State Govt. agencies namely the District Collector and District Food Authorities. The respondent was made to deposit the excess realisations from the sale proceeds of LPG cylinders into the District Treasury. The principal of the respondent namely IOC have also taken note of the complaint and have warned the respondent to act in a fair and just manner consistent with IOC guidelines.

However, it is also to be noted that IOC have also pointed out to the existence of a law and order problem in the service area covered by the respondent’s gas agency. The District Authorities have not commented on this issue which in any case does not appear to have a direct bearing on the complaint under investigation.

In the normal course of events based on the above discussion we would have had no hesitation in recommending the closure of further proceedings in the matter, but the additional information received from the complainant in the second phase, has thrown up a fresh set of allegations against the respondent besides reiterating the earlier complaint. In so far as the earlier complaint is concerned, as already brought out above, we feel that there is no need for a fresh investigation. However, what is really intriguing and potentially damaging to the respondent are the nature of fresh allegations which inter alia include : overcharging from consumers at the time of releasing fresh LPG connections, denial of LPG connections to fresh applicants including bona fide applicants whose delivery dates have matured and an instance of alleged forgery of documents while releasing LPG connections to unregistered persons in place of bona fide/genuine applicants. The above allegations have been supported by photocopies of affidavits. A brief comment on these allegations is presented below