Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Anand Narayan Singh vs Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited & ... on 5 December, 2014
Author: Aniruddha Bose
Bench: Aniruddha Bose
1
27 05.12.14. W.P. 27181 (W)_of 2014..
ab
Anand Narayan Singh
Vs
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited & Ors.
Mr. Debabrata Saha Roy
Mr. Pingal Bhattacharya
... For the Petitioners.
Mr. S. N. Mitra
Ms. Maya Bhadra
... For the BPL.
Mr. S. Sengupta
Mr. Subir Pal
... For the State Respondents.
The subject of dispute in this writ petition relates to filling up of a vacancy for dealership under the West Bengal Public Distribution System (Maintenance and Control) Order, 2003 on account of death of the holder of the dealership licence, Gouri Rani Mukherjee on 28th December, 2006. A new Control Order has been promulgated thereafter, being the West Bengal Public Distribution System (Maintenance and Control) Order, 2013 but considering the fact that vacancy arose when the 2003 Control Order was in operation, and the rejection order, which is assailed in this writ petition was also issued during subsistence of the 2003 Control Order, in my opinion the subject dispute ought to be guided by the Control Order of 2003.
On death of the original dealer, application was made by her daughter-in-law and two grandsons jointly. These types of appointments are commonly referred to as appointment on "compassionate ground" and in Clause 19 (II) of the 2003 Control Order there is provision for considering prayer of the legal heirs of a deceased dealer with preference on compassionate ground, provided 2 the required minimum qualifications are fulfilled. Before the Control Order 2003 came into operation, a departmental circular issued by bearing no. 418-F & S/5A-25/93 dated 28th May, 1996 guided dealership appointments of this nature. At that point of time, dealers used to be engaged in terms of certain executive instructions and on execution of agreements on that basis. That circular specified husband, wife, son, daughter or next of kin of the deceased to be eligible for appointment on compassionate ground. Admitted position is that department continued to follow the said circular until 2013 Control Order came into operation for ascertaining who would be the legal heirs eligible for such appointment of this nature, and if appropriate application was made, appointments used to be made on compassionate ground without declaring vacancy.
In this case, the daughter-in-law and the grandsons do not come within the list of relations specified in the said circular and their claim has been rightly rejected. I do not find any flaw in the said order of rejection considering the provisions of the 2003 Control Order and the abovereferred circular. But I am also of the view that considering the fact that the vacancy arose in the year 2006 and the sons of the petitioner sought to relinquish their right to accommodate the grandsons or the daughter-in-law of the deceased dealer, for the purpose of obtaining licence of dealership another chance may be given to the specified legal heirs of the deceased dealer for being appointed as a dealer for the subject vacancy on compassionate ground. Their decision not to stake their claim for being appointed as a dealer was on the understanding that the daughter-in-law or the grandsons of the deceased dealer would be eligible for appointment. 3 Since the latter category of persons are ineligible for being appointed as dealer, in my opinion the persons who otherwise would have been eligible for being appointed as a dealer should be given another chance to stake their claim.
For this purpose, an application shall be made afresh by any of the sons or other specified relatives of the deceased dealer and such application shall be considered to be in continuance with the earlier application made in that regard. Such application shall be made within a period of three weeks. Subject to fulfillment of the eligibility criteria, the application shall be considered and decided upon within a period of six weeks from the date filing thereof by the concerned authority. The applicant will have to file the application with consent of the other legal heirs and shall be afforded opportunity of hearing before final decision is taken in this regard by the authorities. The vacancy in question shall be kept open till this process is completed, provided such application is filed within the prescribed period of three weeks.
The writ petition stands disposed of in the above terms. There shall, however be, no order as to costs.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, shall be supplied to the learned Counsel for the parties as expeditiously as possible, in compliance of usual formalities.
(Aniruddha Bose, J.) 4