Arup Kumar Goswami, J.

1. Heard Mr. S.S. Dey, leaned senior counsel assisted by Mr. M. Nath, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. P.J. Saikia, learned counsel appearing for the respondents. The pleaded case of the petitioner is that she is an educated lady entrepreneur and a permanent resident of village-Galdighala in the district of Nalbari and she belongs to scheduled caste community. After her marriage, she started living permanently in the marital home at the address given in the cause-title, which is No.3 Bortola, located about 6.5. K.M. away from her permanent place of residence. It is pleaded that she also has landed property covered by Periodic Patta No.62 in Dag No. 259 and a family residence at village-No.3 Bartolla, where part of her extended family stay and the petitioner also occasionally goes and stays in the said residential accommodation.

2. An advertisement was issued by the respondent Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., on 16.9.2010 (wrongly written as 16.9.2011 in the writ petition) inviting applications for appointment of distributor of Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Distributor System, in as many as 35 locations of Assam including village-No.3 Bortolla which is listed at serial No. 22 therein. Distributorship for village-No.3 Bortolla was reserved for scheduled caste persons only.

3. It is the case of the petitioner that having fulfilled the requisite eligibility criteria as laid down in the advertisement as also in the Brochure of selection of Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitrak (RGGLV), she submitted her application accompanied by all necessary certificates and testimonials. Final selection of distributorship is required to be done by way of lottery from amongst the applicants whose applications were found to be in order in terms of the eligibility criteria and accordingly, lottery for location No. 22 i.e. village-No.3 Bortolla was required to be held. A letter dated 14.10.2011 was issued to the petitioner by respondent No. 3 informing her that she had qualified for selection of distributor for RGGLV by draw of lotteries to be held on 8.11.2011 and accordingly, she was requested to be present along with her photo identity card, etc. On 8.11.2011, date of draw was deferred to 17.11.2011. On 17.11.2011, draw was held at 10.30 A.M. and she was declared to be the lucky winner. She was informed verbally that final letter appointing her as distributor will be issued to her later on. In the meantime, the authority had verified the location site of the petitioner for distributorship and as there was no question about the authenticity and genuineness of the various certificates submitted by the petitioner along with her application supporting her eligibility, she was expecting to receive formal letter appointing her as distributor. However, she was served with a letter dated 20.12.2013 issued by respondent No. 3 informing her that during field verification of the accuracy of the data given by the petitioner, it was found that she was not a resident of the advertised location which was also confirmed by the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Nalbari vide verification report dated 25.3.2013 and considering the same, her candidature for RGGLV for village-No. 3 Bortolla was rejected.

4. The petitioner, immediately, upon receipt of the said letter dated 20.12.2013 submitted an application on 24.12.2013 before the SPIO, Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Nalbari for furnishing her a copy of the verification report dated 25.3.2013 which, however, was not furnished.

5. On 26.1.2014, an advertisement was issued in Asomiya Protidin, a daily newspaper, notifying that fresh allotment process for some locations including village-No. 3 Bortolla would be convened on 30.1.2014.

6. Challenging the letter dated 20.12.2013, (Annexure-6), verification report dated 25.3.2013 issued by the respondent No. 3 as well as the advertisement for fresh allotment process published in Asomiya Protidin (Annexure-7) so far as it relates to No. 3