IMPORTANT POINT
Agreement to sell—Registration shall operate from the time from which it would have commenced to operate if no registration thereof had been required or made, and not from time of its registration.

JUDGMENT

Sameer Jain, J.—By way of present writ petition, petitioner has challenged action of the respondent-Indian Oil Corporation Limited (for short, ‘IOCL’) in conducting selection for retail outlet dealership and allotment of petrol pump at location within Khasra No.76, Nahargatti 31/1, Dug, District Jhalawar on account of violation of her fundamental rights enshrined under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India making following prayers:-

“i. Issue an appropriate writ, order or directions in the nature thereof thereby to quash and set side the letter/mail dated 13 march 2019 in declining the candidature of the petitioner in Group 1 category (land) is illegal and bad in the eye of law.

ii. Issue an appropriate writ, order or directions thereby declaring the petitioner is entitled for and to be considered in Group 1 category (land) in pursuance to the advertisement Annexure-1.

iii. Issue such other writ, order or directions as may be deemed just and proper by this Hon’ble Court in facts & circumstances of case and in favour of humble petitioner.

iv. By an appropriate writ, order or directions, award cost of writ petition in favour of humble petitioner.

Any other order which this Hon’ble Court considers fit and proper in favour of the petitioner may kindly be granted.”

2. The facts of the case are that on 14/12/2018, an advertisement was issued by the respondent-IOCL in daily newspaper “Rajasthan Patrika’ for selection of dealers qua IOCL retail outlet at various locations. The respondent-IOCL also issued a brochure dated 24/11/2018 for selection of dealers for regular and rural retail outlets wherein the terms, conditions and guidelines were also incorporated. As per the advertisement, the last date for submitting application form was 12/01/2019 and the same could have been submitted through on-line mode which was to be withdrawn immediately after lapse of last date i.e. 12/01/2019.

3. On 11/01/2019, sale deed of the land qua the allotment was presented in the office of Sub-Registrar, Dug, District Jhalawar for registration and after receiving the same, necessary e-challan and appropriate stamps duty was deposited, affidavits, prescribed forms were also deposited and the consideration was paid and possession was given by the seller to the petitioner on 11/01/2019 but the sale deed could not be registered on 11/01/2019 due to the server being down and due to there being public holidays on 12th, 13th and 14th January, 2019 ultimately, the sale deed could be registered on 15th January, 2019. As regards the application form, the petitioner had submitted the same on 12/01/2019 within time.

4. It is relevant to note that it has come on record that a certificate was also issued by the office of the Sub-Registrar, Dug certifying that the sale deed was presented for registration on 11/01/2019 but as the server was down on that day and thereafter 12th, 13th and 14th January, 2019 were public holidays, the matter could not be processed and the sale deed could be registered on 15/01/2019.

5. On 14/01/2019, the respondent-IOCL vide e-mail declared the petitioner as a successful candidate.

6. It is also relevant to note that no documents were required to be submitted alongwith the application form.

7. The requirement made by the respondent-IOCL vide its letter dated 14/01/2019 for submission of documents including the land documents within a period of 10 days, was duly fulfilled and the entire documents as required were submitted in the office of the respondents on 21/01/2019.

8. Vide communication dated 13/03/2019 (Annexure-5), the respondent-IOCL declared application form of the petitioner as not proper under Group-1 and found candidature of the petitioner under the said category as ineligible but directed for consideration of the application of the petitioner under Group-3 as per guidelines.

9. The only reason for rejection of the candidature of the petitioner for Group-1 to the best knowledge of the petitioner was non