The court upheld the legality of dealership termination based on confirmed tampering evidence, affirming procedural fairness and adherence to natural justice principles, invalidating the petitioner's claims of bias.

ORDER :

NAGESH BHEEMAPAKA, J.

The case of the petitioners, precisely, as per the writ affidavit, is that they hold a Dealership Agreement with the 1^st respondent-Indian Oil Corporation, and are running a petroleum retail outlet under the name and style of M/s. Vimal Filling Station, on land measuring 1111.11 square yards in Survey Nos. 5A and 6/A of Dharur Village and Mandal, Vikarabad District. The Dealership was initially granted to the Smt. Parvathamma, who is the grandmother of the 2^nd petitioner, and later reconstituted on 27.01.2009, in favor ofSmt. Vimala Bai, who is the daughter of Smt. Parvathamma. Following the demise of Smt. Vimala Bai on 05.08.2020, the dealership was transferred to her son, the present petitioner, under a fresh Dealership Agreement executed on 22.12.2020, valid for fifteen years, i.e., until 21.12.2035. The retail outlethad functioned smoothly since its inception on 30.06.2012, with no complaints ever recorded by customers, the Weights and Measures Department, or IOCL regarding adulteration or short.

1.1 The petitioner alleges that from 2022 onwards, IOCL officials, particularly Mr. Abhishek Choudhary, then Chief Manager (now Deputy General Manager, RS, Secunderabad Division), and Mr. B. Erranna, Manager, began harassing him and attempted to force a reconstitution of the dealership with a third party. His father, Mr. Abid Hussain Agarwal, lodged a complaint against these officials with IOCL’s Vigilance Department (Southern Region), and a letter from the DGM (Vigilance) acknowledging the complaint was received. The petitioner asserts that Mr. Choudhary, motivated by vengeance over this complaint, later became part of the personal hearing committee and was instrumental in terminating the dealership out of bias.

1.2 The sequence of disputed events began on 16.11.2023, when the GVR service technicians—authorized agents of IOCL—visited the retail outlet to break the seals on Dispensing Unit (DU) Serial No. 01807001363 (Make:GVR) for calibration and annual stamping in the presence of the Assistant Legal Metrology Officer (ALMO), Vikarabad, and the retail outlet staff. A Panchanama was subsequently drawn up on 24.01.2024, recording that the Motor Spirit (MS) and High Speed Diesel (HSD) stock variation was within permissible limits and that the 5-liter measure test showed no deviation. The Panchanama further noted that samples of MS (two samples) and HSD (one sample) were collected and retained by the dealer for verification. The petitioner emphasizes that the Weights and Measures Department seals on the Metering and Totalizer Units were intact on 16.11.2023, and that the GVR technician himself broke the seals during calibration, thereby disproving any allegation of tampering by the dealer.

1.3 Despite these observations, IOCL issued a Show Cause Notice dated 28.08.2024, which, according to the petitioner, was invalid because it referred to the Dealership Agreement of 2012, long since replaced by the current agreement of 22.12.2020. The petitioner responded, denying any tampering or irregularity and asserting that he was not given a fair hearing. Nevertheless, IOCL proceeded to rely on an allegedly fabricated GVR TACC Laboratory Report dated 19.07.2024, which claimed that the CPU cards from the DU showed soldering rework on resistors R201 and R202, as well as on the JTAG connector pins 17 and 19, and on the FRAM IC and EEPROM 17th pin on the rear side of the card. The pet