Mohan M. Shantanagoudar, J.

"Kindness is the language, which the deaf can hear and the blind can see", said the 18th century American Writer, Mark Twain. The exclusion of totally blind persons from participating in the tender for distributorship of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is under challenge in the writ proceeding. The learned single Judge as per judgment dated 30.05.2016 held the exclusion to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, which is under challenge in this writ appeal.

2. The brief facts of the case are as under:

The appellant invited applications for distributionship of LPG at several locations in Kerala, including the location "Kottiyam in Kollam district", which was reserved for Combined Category (CC) applicants belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC). Among other conditions, the selection criteria specifies that "totally blind persons" will not be eligible to apply under the "combined category" and that the minimum dimensions of the godown plot offered by the applicant should be 31 x 36 metres.

The first respondent, the writ petitioner, is a totally blind person. He applied for LPG distributorship under SC(CC) category at Kottiyam, Kollam district. His app