Mr. K. Kannan, J.: - The petitioner, who had the benefit of allotment of a petrol pump after securing all statutory clearances and whose petrol pump had been commissioned after issuance of letter of intent, faced an obstacle by the District Magistrate, cancelling the ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) already issued. This change in the stand had arisen when two persons, who were arrayed as respondents 4 and 5, filed a writ petition in CWP No.18655 of 2004, challenging the allotment made in favour of the petitioner, contending that the location of the petrol pump was a place different from what was advertised by the Oil Company. This allotment was exclusively for Scheduled Caste candidate and the 4th respondent also belonged to the Scheduled Caste category, but incidentally he had not even applied. The 5th respondent belonged to the General category and it is not very clear what his locus standi was. When the above writ petition filed at their instance was pending, the District Magistrate was reported to have taken a fresh appraisal on the location of the property with reference to the revenue records and cancelled the NOC already granted on the grounds essentially that the location of the petrol pump was at the village that had not been notified and that further the width of the road on which the petrol pump was located, was less than 5 karams, which was the minimum approved width as per the guidelines issued by the Corporation.

2. After the filing of the writ petition, having regard to the cancellation of the NOC already issued, instead of directing the petrol pump to be closed, the Division Bench of this Court before which this case had been brought up, passed an order on 09.07.2007, permitting the Corporation to run the outlet in question, until further orders. This order was extended from time to time. By order dated 13.05.2008, the Division Bench had clarified that the Corporation could not entrust the running of the outlet to anyone including the petitioner.

3. The contention of the petitioner is that the cancellation of the NOC as enjoined by the relevant Rules was restrictive and the several reasons set forth in the order of the District Magistrate which is impugned traversed outside the relevant factors for consideration. The first contention, therefore, was that the power of cancellation could not be exercised for reasons which would have been perhaps relevant at the time when the NOC was issued for the first time. If there was no fraud or suppression made at any time, a cancellation cannot be undertaken at the whims of the District Magistrate. The second contention is that, even the alleged grounds for cancellation as found in the order, cannot be supported.

4. I would take the second objection first to examine whether the District Magistrate was correct in stating that there had been a serious violation in the manner of allotment that could justify a decision not to grant a NOC. The allotment of a petrol pump involves grant of a largesse by a public authority and, therefore, the action must stand the test of Article 14 of the Constitution. In the advertisement issued, the location and the identification of the stretch of the road as far as serial number 98 that is relevant for this case, was as follows:-

Admittedly, the petitioner was a Scheduled Caste candidate and he had applied for allotment of an outlet in a property which was situate at Kalewal. The contention of the petitioner to justify that the location did not breach the advertisement was by showing that the property which was identified to reside between Bore and Chaunta included Kalewal as well which fell within the very same panchayat of Salempur. The most crucial issue was, whether the location and the name of the village must be only understood from the context of such location brought through the terminal villages on either side as found in the advertisement. The distance between Bore and Chaunta itself was said to be not more than a kilometer