Availability of alternative remedies through arbitration precludes writ jurisdiction under Article 226.

1. Heard Sri Sudeep Seth, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Atul Kumar Dwivedi appearing for the petitioner and Shri Ratnesh Chandra, Advocate for the respondent Nos. 2, 3 and 4.

2. By means of this writ petition under Art.226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has sought for quashment of the order dated 18.6.2020 passed by the Deputy General Manager (LPG) Sales (Opposite Party No.3) whereby the representation of the petitioner has been rejected and a direction for recovery has been issued inter - alia on the ground that the impugned order is without jurisdiction and illegal.

3. According to the learned Counsel for the petitioner, the Indian Oil Corporation invited applications for appointment of Distributors in Kasba Maurawan, Distribution and the petitioner being eligible, also applied for distributorship. After due formalities, the petitioner was appointed as distributor for release / distribution of LPG Cylinders for the location Kasba Maurawan, District Unnao for which an agreement was also signed between the petitioner and opposite party No.3 on 14.1.2016. Thereafter, the petitioner was allocated Distributor Code No. 290310 and was authorized to distribute the LPG Cylinders to the customers of Indian Oil Corporation.

4. As per the Scheme and FAQ's, LPG connection was required to be released to only one adult female member of the family as per SECC - 2011. For connections under the scheme, applications were required to be submitted by the applicants to the distributor. After receiving the same, distributor was required to physically verify the house of the applicant for not having any LPG connection by the applicant or her family members as per SECC - 2011. After being satisfied that no other connection is available in the name of the applicant or her family members, the distributor was required to upload the Aadhar of all adult family members and in case of non - availability of the Aadhar of any member an undertaking was required to be taken by the distributor from the applicant. After the KYC ( Know Your Customer) is uploaded the de - duplication was required to be carried out by Indian Oil Corporation.

5. It came to the knowledge of the Corporation that multiple connections have been released by the petitioner without following the due procedure. Further, it was noticed that in the SECC - 2011, no names were given and the petitioners have neither uploaded the details of Aadhar nor complete information was given while uploading the data. As per FAQ - 9, the distributors were required to physically verify the house of the applicant for not having LPG connection before uploading the applicants detail on IOC portal, which the petitioner has not done.

6. Under the Ujjwala Scheme, LPG distributors have to follow the procedure as prescribed before releasing LPG connection. However, petitioners without verifying the premises of the applicants uploaded the incorrect and incomplete information for releasing LPG connections and thus they have misused the public money.

7. The Competent Authority of the Indian Oil Corporation after considering the reply filed by the petitioners, considered the case of the petitioner and after verifying the records passed the impugned order dated 18.6.2020 and directed for recovery of the amount.

8. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that earlier the petitioner has preferred Writ Petition No. 9994 (MB) of 2020 wherein he has challenged the e - mail dated 26.3.2019 sent by the Indian Oil Corporation. The said writ petition was dis