Termination of dealership can be justified under critical irregularities per Marketing Discipline Guidelines when seals are tampered, reinforcing limited scope of judicial review.

ORDER :

VIVEK RUSIA, J.

1. The petitioner, being a proprietorship firm represented through its proprietor Smt. Kiran Mundra, has filed the present petition being aggrieved by the order dated 20.9.2022 (Annexure P/19) whereby the Retail Dealership has been terminated on the ground of critical irregularities committed under Marketing Discipline Guidelines (hereinafter referred to as “the guidelines” for sort).
2. Facts of the case.
2.1 The petitioner who is a proprietorship firm in the name of M/s. Kanhaiyalal & Co. established a retail outlet of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “IOCL” for sort) for the retail sale and supply of petroleum products i.e. Motor Spirit (petrol), High-Speed Diesel (HSD), etc. on land admeasuring 0.107 Hect., situated at Ward No.11, Akodia Naka, Patwari Halka No. 18, Shujalpur, District Shajapur. ( hereinafter referred to as the Retail Outlet ). A registered lease deed dated 10.3.1999 was executed for the period of 30 years between the petitioner and IOCL. The last dealership agreement was executed on 1.7.2019 between them for a period of 15 years i.e. up to 30.6.2034.
2.2 On 11.4.2022, Shri Nitesh Choudhary, Assistant Manager (Retail Sales), Dewas Sales Area, IOCL and Shri Sukendra, Assistant Manager (Retail Sales, Shajapur Sales Area, IOCL visited the retail outlet and inspected daily sales record, stock verification from totalizer reading, physical stock, safety measures, price display and the charged, inspection of washroom, payment wages, other facilities and pump delivery, quality check of MS and HSD, mobile lab, stock reconciliation, etc. and prepared and submitted the detailed inspection reportand submitted to the head office. Before that, the team of IOCL visited the retail outlet on 1.2.2022. So far as the Dispensing Unit (DU) Sr. No. 201302001387 (in short “DU 1387”) (GVR DU India Make) is concerned, all the seals were found intact, delivery was found correct and the remark OK was given; so far as DU Sr. No. 201308000035 (in short “DU 0035”) (GILBARCO Make) but Weights & Measure (W&M) Display Seal was not found intact and the unit totalizer reading jumped; so far as Nozzle Nos. 12, 13 are concerned, the W&M seals were not found available and No.13, the totalizer reading was found jumped as per the remark.
2.3 These irregularities were treated as critical irregularities in the retail out by the petitioner, therefore, a show-cause notice dated 18.5.2022 was issued to the petitioner calling upon them to submit a reply to the fact-finding inquiry. This SCN was issued by the Divisional Retail Head, Indore DO. In the aforesaid show-cause notice the respondents relied on the report of the Technology Audit and Compliance Cell (TACC) for Gilbarco Veeder Root India Pvt. Ltd. (GVR) (OEM) with respect to the Sealed Electronic Card of two dispensing units i.e. DU 1387 and DU 0035. As per the report, soldering rework was observed near JTAG connector on the back side of CPU card and FRAM and EEPROM IC 7th pin on the back side of the CPU card, which is termed as a manipulated dispensing operation. It was further alleged that Legal Metrology (W&M) seals were not found on the display card of DU 0035, which is also a critical irregularity. The show-cause notice was issued under the provisions of the Dealership Agreement and the Marketing Guidelines effective from 8.1.2013 (MDG) for several minor, major and critical irregularities reported by the two members team (supra).
2.4 The petitioner submitted the detailed reply on 21.6.2022 to the aforesaid show-cause notice. Since the reply was not found satisfactory thereafter the petitioner was served with the IInd show cause notice dated 28.7.2022 proposing the termination of the retail outlet. The petitioner filed a detailed and exhaustive reply to the second showcause notice in defence by submitting that no ground for terminating the retail out is made out. Along with the rep