The court established that in the allotment of market yard premises, authorities must prioritize senior, long-standing commission agents who consistently contribute market fees over new licensees, provided the senior agents have complied with necessary procedural and financial requirements.

COMMON ORDER:

Writ Petition No.17873 of 2016 is filed seeking to declare the action of respondents in allotting Shop No.1-B in favour of 5th respondent who is a new Commission Agent licencee, without considering the petitioner for allotment of Shop No.1-B who is an old trader and entitled for allotment as illegal and arbitrary, and to declare the action of respondents in not considering the representations of the petitioner for allotment of Shop No.1-B in Gudimalkapur Market Yard, Hyderabad in his favour, as unjust, and consequently direct the respondents to cancel the allotment, if any, made in favour of the 5th respondent and allot the same to the petitioner.

2. Writ Petition No.8775 of 2016 is filed seeking to declare the action of respondents in resorting to convert the staircases in A-Class shopping complex at Gudimalkapur Market Yard, Gudimalkapur, Hyderabad into Shops in order to allot the same to new Commission Agents, as illegal, arbitrary and against the Telangana (Agricultural Produce and Livestock), Markets Act and Rules and to declare the action of the respondents to allot the premises to the newly created commission agent licencees in non transparent manner without considering the 2nd and 3rd petitioners who do not have premises, as illegal and arbitrary.

3. As these two writ petitions are connected, they are analogously heard and are being disposed of by this Common Order. For convenience of discussion, the averments in W.P.No.17873 of 2016 are taken.

4. Heard Ms. G. Bhanu Priya, learned counsel for the petitioner; and learned Government Pleader for Agriculture; and Sri L. Preetham Reddy, for respondent No.5.

5. Brief facts of the case as per the writ affidavit in W.P.No.17873 of 2016 are that the petitioner-M/s Shirige Prakash& Brothers, is doing Commission Agent business in Vegetable since the days of his forefathers and initially the Market was at Karwan, Hyderabad which was a private market. In the year 1991, the market was shifted to Gudimalkapur due to traffic congestion. The Gudimalkapur market was established after acquiring land to establish wholesale vegetable market, and the commission agents were requested by the market authorities to shift their businesses to Gudimalkapur market with a promise that all of them would be allotted shops. Accordingly, most of the traders were allotted shops at Gudimalkapur market yard, except four licensees i.e., the petitioner and 3 others namely, M/s Swathi Vegetables Commission agents; M/s Imani Commission Agent, and; M/s Ramulu Commission agent; due to non availability of constructed shops. Even the allottees constructed the pucca shops with their own expenses. Even then rents are being collected from them from time to time. Hence challenging the demand of rents and non-consideration of outright sale / long lease, writ petition was filed by the association and it was allowed. The proposal for allotting on outright sale and long lease is in pipeline. It is the case of the petitioner that instead of pucca shops, he and other commission agents were allotted open space in the tin sheds constructed between the market complex. But informed to pay rents only when the tin sheds are partitioned and made as shops. It is also the case of the petitioner that the tin sheds were never partitioned by the market committee, and they continued without any demand of rents. In the month of April, 2015, the market committee directed to demolish the tin sheds and the work for removal of debris is granted to M/s Millennium Metal Company, Hyderabad. They demolished the tin sheds and cleared the area, leaving the petitioner and others to do business in the open, without any shelter a