IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA CWP No.1910 of 2020 Reserved on: 19.12.2024 Date of Decision: 27.12.2024 _____________________________________________________________________

Vijay Kumar ……...Petitioner Versus Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Ors.

…....Respondents Coram Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sandeep Sharma, Judge.

Whether approved for reporting? Yes.

For the Petitioner: Mr. Vinay Kuthiala, Senior Advocate with Mr. Rajiv Rai, Advocate.

For the respondents: Mr. B.N. Misra, Senior Advocate with Ms.

Diksha, Advocate, for respondent No.1.

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Sandeep Sharma, J. (Oral)

By way of instant petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioner has prayed for following main reliefs:

“A. That the Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to issue the Writ of Certiorari whereby this Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to quash and set-aside the impugned rejection letter dated 15th of April, 2020 vide Annexure P/1 and further the impugned rejection letter dated 30.01.2018 vide Annexure P/13 issued by the office of the respondent no.2.

B. That this Hon’ble Court may further be pleased to quash and set- aside the Field Verification Credentials (FVC) Vide Annexure P/17, conducted Respondent no.3 qua the petitioner in the application reference no. BPC03119000701092017 being illegal, without authority and mala-fide.

C. That the respondents may kindly be directed to constitute a proper FVC Committee consisting of Officials and further to conduct the FVC absolutely in consonance with the Unified Guidelines for the section of Distributorship of LPG dated July 2017 vide Annexure P/4 after designating a date for FVC with prior intimation to the petitioner well in time.

D. That the Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to direction investigation/inquiry into the issue involved in the present case as per the allegation leveled by the petitioner.”

2. Relevant facts necessary for adjudication of the case as emerge from the pleadings adduced on record by parties to the lis are that vide public notice dated 13.8.2017 (Annexure P-5), three leading oil companies namely Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, jointly invited applications for allotment/grant of dealership of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (hereinafter referred to as the “LPG”) at various places, wherein place called Dharampur (Rural), District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, was reserved for Scheduled Caste Category. Petitioner herein being eligible applied for allotment of LPG distributorship on 1.9.2017 vide application No. BPC03119000701092017 (Annexure P-6). On 12.1.2018, petitioner was found eligible for selection of LPG distributorship of Bharat Petroleum Corporation at Dharampur, District Mandi, in the draw of lots conducted on 11.1.2018. Vide communication dated 12.1.2018 (Annexure P-8 Colly), respondent Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited while intimating petitioner with regard to his selection called upon him to deposit amount of Rs. 20,000/- and submit relevant documents. On 16.1.2018, petitioner besides submitting the relevant documents also deposited the fee as per afore communication dated

12.1.2018.

3. As per Brochure/Unified Guidelines for Selection of LPG Distributors jointly prepared by all the three oil companies as detailed herein above in June 2017 (Annexure P-14), Field Verification of Credentials (hereinafter referred to as the “FVC”) was required to be conducted by the Committee officials and accordingly, in that regard, an official of respondent/BPCL visited the location offered by the petitioner. On 17.1.2018, respondent No.3 reached the location of the petitioner for field verification and found that there were over hanging high tension electric wires passing through the plot. While conducting inspection afore respondent No.3, allegedly got prepared the rough site plan of area measuring 21x26 meters out of total plot measu