Gujarat High Court
Harishbhai Mohanlal Modi vs State Of Gujarat & 2....Opponent(S) on 16 January, 2014
Bench: Bhaskar Bhattacharya, J.B.Pardiwala
C/WPPIL/213/2013 ORDER
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
WRIT PETITION (PIL) NO. 213 of 2013
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HARISHBHAI MOHANLAL MODI....Applicant(s)
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT & 2....Opponent(s)
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Appearance:
MR NIRAV C THAKKAR, ADVOCATE for the Applicant
MR PK JANI GP WITH MS VACHA DESAI, AGP for Respondents
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CORAM: HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR.
BHASKAR BHATTACHARYA
and
HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE J.B.PARDIWALA
Date : 16/01/2014
ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. BHASKAR BHATTACHARYA) By this Public Interest Litigation, the petitioner has prayed for appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondents to pay to the litigants including the petitioner their rightful dues under the various awards passed by the respondent no.3 or pursuant to the order passed by the respondent no.2 in the appeal/revision, as the case may be.
In this case, the State of Gujarat, through Secretary, Food & Civil Supplies & Consumer Department is the respondent no.1, Registrar, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission is the respondent no.2 and the Registrar, Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum is the respondent no.3. The grievance of the petitioner is that by virtue of the orders passed by the respondent nos. 2 and 3 in various matters on the complaints made by the litigants, awards Page 1 of 3 C/WPPIL/213/2013 ORDER have been passed and those awarded sums have been deposited by the award-debtors. But in view of theft committed by one of the employees of the respondent no.3 in the name of U.J. Parmar, to the tune of Rs. 62.00 Lac, the respondent no.3 or the respondent no.2 are unable to pay the awarded sum since deposited by the award- debtors.
On earlier occasion, when the matter came up for hearing, Mr. Jani, the learned Government Pleader, appearing on behalf of the respondents prayed for adjournment of the matter for a fortnight so that the matter could be pursued in the meantime for giving appropriate relief to the petitioner. Such order was passed on 29th November 2013. Till today, no further amount has been released in favour of the award-holders who were successful in various litigations before the respondent nos. 2 and 3.
After hearing the learned counsel for the parties and after going through the materials on record, we find that the State- respondent cannot deprive the litigants who were successful in those litigations before the respondent nos. 2 and 3 of their rightful dues, on mere plea that one of the employees of the respondent no.3 committed theft of Rs. 62 Lac from the awarded sums deposited by the losing litigants. In such circumstances, we dispose of this Public Interest Litigation by directing the respondent no.1-the Secretary, Food & Civil Supplies & Consumer Department to see that the awarded sums deposited by the award-debtors is paid to the successful litigants positively within a fortnight from today with interest at the rate of 10% per annum from the date of deposit of the amount by the award-debtors.
The Public Interest of Litigation is thus, disposed with the above direction.
(BHASKAR BHATTACHARYA, CJ.)
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C/WPPIL/213/2013 ORDER
(J.B.PARDIWALA, J.)
pirzada
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