ORDER

The writ petition has been filed challenging the impugned proceedings issued by the second respondent to recover loss caused to the Government due to loss of essential commodities and malpractice from the respective employees of the Fair Price Shops.

2. The petitioner is a union consisting of employees serving in the Fair Price Shops. The third respondent runs Fair Price Shops for effecting Public Distribution System (PDS) under the direct control of the respective Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies of each district. Besides, Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation also runs Fair Price Shops all over Tamil Nadu. While being so, the second respondent issued impugned proceedings instructing the authorities concerned to recover the loss caused to the Government owing to loss of essential commodities and malpractice by the employees concerned in Fair Price Shops.

3. The said impugned proceeding is challenged on the ground that after introduction of point of sale and obtention of finger print, there is no scope for malpractice. There are lot of reasons for stock deficit. In case the essential commodities arrive to the Fair Price Shops from Godown with 3 to 5 kg lesser than the actual weight, there is no proper system to ensure whether such essential commodities are supplied with correct weight, as no weighment/measurement of goods is taken at the shops while receiving the goods. That apart, there is a possibility of wastage at the selling point while handling commodities, and no official is checking about weight of the commodities either at Godown or during the transit from Godown to Fair Price Shops. Further, the employees of the ration shops are getting salary between Rs.15,000/- and Rs.25,000/-, but, by virtue of the impugned proceedings, they may forego considerable amount every month as penalty for no fault on them.

4. On perusal of the counter affidavit and also considering the submission of the learned Additional Government Pleader for the respondents, it is revealed that for supply of foodgrains/essential commodities to people, food grains are being procured by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supply Corporation (TNCSC). Subsequently, they are stored in Godowns maintained by the TNCSC. Through a computerized supply chain management system, the movement of the essential commodities is allotted based on requirement and availability of stocks in Godowns. On the basis of requirement of commodities and taking into consideration of the sale of preceding month and closing balance of stock, goods are allotted to all Fair Price Shops every month through PDS online portal under end-to-end computerized system maintained by the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department. The Fair Price Shops are run by various agencies like, TNCSC, Cooperative Societies and so on. For stock movement from Godown to Fair Price Shops, they have separate representative officials from societies / TNCSC. The commodities are weighed, standardized and loaded into vehicle in the presence of representative of agencies. Fair Price Shops are provided with an Issue Memo, which consist a list of commodities that are moved in that vehicle to a particular shop with separate code, and the salesmen of Fair Price Shops have to ensure that the commodities so received to a particular Fair Price Shop are properly weighed during receipt in Fair Price Shops. Therefore, salesmen of Fair Price Shops have an option to give acknowledgment or not to accept commodities if commodities are not weighed properly.

5. Further, the movement of the commodities in lorries are being monitored through computerization and if there is any deviation, the same can be noticed immediately and the action will be taken against the person concerned. Therefore, after receipt of the commodities, salesmen of the Fair Price Shops are fully responsible if there is any deficit found during inspection. Further, in order to ensure that cardholders have drawn their entitled commodities as per withdrawl quan