Devendra Kumar Arora, J.—

Heard learned counsel for the parties.

By means of instant writ petition, the petitioner is seeking a writ of certiorari for quashing the order dated 09.08.2012, passed by the opposite party no.3, as contained in Annexure-1 to the writ petition. The petitioner has further sought a writ of mandamus commanding the opposite party no.3 to permit the petitioner to run the Fair Price Shop of Village Panchayat Mubarakpur Daiyadeeh, Tehsil Akbarpur, District Ambedkar Nagar.

Facts of the case in brief are that initially the licence of a Fair Price Shop of Village Panchayat Mubarakpur Daiyadeeh, Tehsil Akbarpur, District Ambedkar Nagar was allotted to the opposite party no.4. On complaint against the irregularities committed by the opposite party no.4 with respect to distribution of essential commodities an enquiry was initiated and by means of order dated 27.11.2007 the licence of Fair Price Shop of opposite party no.4 was suspended. Thereafter, the District Supply Officer, Ambedkar Nagar by means of order dated 26.03.2008 cancelled the Fair Price Shop of opposite party no.4. Thereafter, the petitioner was appointed as licensee of Fair Price Shop of village Panchayat Mubarakpur Daiyadeeh, Tehsil Akbarpur, District Ambedkar Nagar under the stop gap arrangement and run the shop for the last four years without any interruption. Against the order of cancellation of licence of Fair Price Shop dated 26.03.2008, the opposite party no.4 filed appeal before the Additional Commissioner (Administration), Faizabad Mandal, Faizabad, which was allowed by means of order dated 12.06.2012. In compliance of order dated 12.06.2012, Up Zilaadhikari Akbarpur, District Ambedkar Nagar restored the licence of the opposite party no.4 by means of impugned order dated 09.08.2012 and cancelled the licence of the petitioner being the subsequent allottee. Feeling aggrieved against the order dated 09.08.2012, passed by the Up Zilaadhikari Akbarbpur, district Ambedkar Nagar, in compliance of order dated 12.06.2012 passed by the Additional Commissioner (Administration), Faizabad Division, Faizabad, the petitioner has approached this Court by means of instant writ petition.

The submission of learned counsel for the petitioner is that the Additional Commissioner, (Administration) Faizabad Division, Faizabad, while allowing the appeal of opposite party no.4, did not consider the genuineness of the case that there was serious irregularities committed by the opposite party no.4 in distribution of the essential commodities to the ration card holders and in compliance of order of Additional Commissioner dated 12.06.2012 the Up Zilaadhikari by means of order dated 09.08.2012 restored the licence of the opposite party no.4 without affording any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. As there was no complaint against the petitioner in distributing the essential commodities to the ration card holders, therefore, the writ petition is liable to be allowed with costs.

On the other hand, learned Standing Counsel submitted that the Fair Price Shop was allotted to the petitioner in a stop gap arrangement and, as such, she has no legal right to continue the said shop on the basis of interim arrangement made in the year 2008. There is no illegality in the order dated 12.06.2012, passed by the Additional Commissioner (Administration),Faizabad Division, Faizabad as well as order dated 09.08.2012 passed by the Up Ziladhikari Akarbarpur, District Ambedkar Nagar in compliance of order dated 12.06.2012. Therefore, the writ petition lacks merits and deserves to be dismissed.

In support of his submission, learned Standing Counsel has relied upon the case reported in [2009 (74) ALR 61], Sri Pal Jatav vs. State of U.P. and others, in which the Division Bench of this Court has observed that on account of cancellation of licence of the Fair Price Shop of opposite party no.3, the petitioner was permitted to run the Fair Price Shop as a stop gap arrangement and since the licenc

Click Here to Read the rest of this document