CWP-12092-2020 (O&M)

1

IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA

AT CHANDIGARH

CWP-12092-2020 (O&M)

Date of decision:01.09.2020

M/s Chardikala Indane and others

.......Petitioners

Versus

Union of India and others

......Respondents

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANIL KSHETARPAL

Present:-

Mr.Puneet Gupta, Advocate for the petitioners

ANIL KSHETARPAL, J.

The writ petitioners, who claim to be the new LPG

Distributors, have filed this writ petition under Article 226/227 of the

Constitution of India for issuance of mandamus directing the

respondents to transfer the customers\LPG consumers to them from the

existing distributors till they reach the refill sale viability level i.e. 50%

of the ceiling in terms of the unified guidelines for the selection of LPG

Distributorship – 2016 and as per the circular dated 04.01.2018

(Annexure P2).

In brief, the case of the writ petitioners is that they have

been appointed as new LPG Distributors by the Indian Oil Corporation

and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. They pray that under the

circular (Annexure P-2) while marketing restructuring, the existing

customers of the old LPG Distributors have to be transferred to them till

they reach the refill sale viability level i.e. 50% of the ceiling in terms of

the unified guidelines for the selection of LPG Distributorship, 2016. At

the outset, it must be noticed that the Government of India had approved

REKHA SIHAG

2020.09.03 18:52

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integrity of this document

chandigarh

CWP-12092-2020 (O&M)

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the unified guidelines for the selection of LPG Distributorship on

23.06.2016. As per the unified guidelines under Clause 2.4.1.1 Market

Ceiling and Refill Ceiling Limit as also refill sale per month for

feasibility limit were defined and fixed. Clause 2.4.1.1. is extracted as

under:

“2.4.1.1

ExistingMarketing

2.4.1.1.1

Market Ceiling

The market refill ceiling limit is the maximum number of

the domestic refill sales stipulated for LPG and based on

the market Market Ceiling Limit and the Feasibility Norm

for different types of Distributorship Area is proposed

below:

Type

of

Distributorship

area

Population as

per census 2011

Refill Ceiling

limit per month

Refill sale per

month for

feasibility limit

Shehri Vitrak

Cities

with

population >40

lakh

20,000

10,000

Cities with 20 to

40

lakh

population

12,000

7,500

Cities with 10 to

20

lakh

population

12,000

6,000

Rurban Vitrak

Towns with <10

lakh population

10,000

5,000

Gramin Vitrak

Village/Cluster of

villages

5,000

2,500

Durgam

Khetriya

Vitrak

Village/Cluster of

villages

1,500

600

Restructuring of the LPG Distributorships viz Sheheri

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2020.09.03 18:52

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integrity of this document

chandigarh

CWP-12092-2020 (O&M)

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Vitrak, Rurban Vitrak, Gramin Vitrak and Durgam

Kshetriya Vitrak in the existing market will be planned only

after the refill sale exceeds by 50 of the refill ceiling limit of

the market.

Note:

I)

The proposed refill ceiling limits for LPG

Distributors will be applicable for all the LPG

as defined above on prospective basis.

However, the restructuring exercise for all the

locations advertised prior to these guidelines

will continue on the basis of the pre-revised

ceiling limits.

ii)

Existing Rural with refill ceiling limit of 8800

per month will not be restructured applying

new ceiling limit criteria under this guidelines.

iii)

All existing RGGLV Distributorship with

monthly refill sale of more than I500 will be

treated as Gramin Vitrak in accordance with

these guideline sand with mandatory home

delivery facility.

iv)

All existing RGGLV Distributorships with

monthly refill sale of less than 1500will be

treated as Durgam Kshetriya Vitrak in

accordance with this policy and without

REKHA SIHAG

2020.09.03 18:52

I attest to the accuracy and

integri