Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

9. The order impugned in the present petition was thereafter passed by the Appellate Authority again dismissing the appeal filed by the petitioner. The Appellate Authority observed as under:

"I have gone through the records placed before me including the appeal memorandum and also heard the licensee as well as the licensing authority. It is observed that the cardholders did not lift ration in the month of January & February 2018 and after the implementation of ePOS system the cardholders lifted the ration only in the month of March 2018. The SFAS to 90 NFS cardholders have been issued through OTP (One Time Password) in the month of March 2018, hence, a door to door survey was conducted and it was revealed that SFAs to the tune of 20.48 Qtl. (Wheat) & 5.12 Qtl. (Rice) (Total 25.60 Qtl.) were siphoned off. As per door to door verification report, cardholders were not found residing/traceable on the address mentioned in the cards but, as the cardholders were not attached with the FPS of the appellant (as per report of IT Branch), therefore, the FPS licensee should have been more circumspect before issuing SFAs by ascertaining the authenticity of card holders by way of first going through bio- metrics, upon failure of biometrics, through IRIS and upon failure of the aforesaid two methods, through OTP, as directed by the department. It is observed that the appellant in 88 cases out of 90, did not follow the procedure mentioned above which casts doubt over the genuineness of transaction and integrity of the licensee. This fact has again been corroborated in the door to door survey report.

The contention of the appellant that in no case more than one OTP was generated from one mobile number cannot substantiate the claim of the appellant that the transactions were genuine. The fact that 44 transactions were made during the odd/non working hours of Ration shop and before generation of OTP the proper steps/procedure i.e. Biometric Authentication and IRIS were not followed, shows that transactions were not genuine which has further been substantiated by the door to door survey conducted by Inspector (Food & Supply).

12. The learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that the allegation of the respondents that the petitioner did not attempt Bio- Metric (finger prints) and/or IRIS identification methods before resorting to the OTP method is also ill-founded. He submits that the reply given by the IT Department of the respondents itself would show that there was a problem/defect with the BEL device application which bypassed authentication under the Bio-Metric and IRIS methods after waiting for 10 seconds at each stage, thereafter jumping directly to the OTP verification stage. He submits that out of a total 609 transactions, the petitioner had carried out 460 transactions using Bio-Metric method; 35 through IRIS method; and only 114 through OTP. He submits that it was not possible for the FPS licensee to override the Bio-Metric identification without attempting the same. For this purpose, he places reliance on the Agreement entered into between the respondent and the BEL for the W.P.(C) 3324/2019 & other connected cases Page 7 supply of the ePOS machines. He submits that it is not the case of the respondent that the petitioner, in any manner, tampered with the ePOS machine and therefore, the allegation that the petitioner deliberately avoided the Bio-Metric or the IRIS method of verification cannot be accepted. He further submits that the report received from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) by the respondent itself shows that due to device application fault, the ePOS machines were skipping authentication after waiting few seconds and for the same the petitioner could not have been blamed or proceeded against.

14. The learned counsel for the petitioner finally submits that the Impugned Order is based on mere conjectures and surmises. The petitioner has no role to play in the issuance of the Ration Cards and W.P.(C) 3324/2019 & other connected cases Page 8 therefore, if the said Ration Card Holders are not found at their given address, the petitioner cannot be penalized.

15. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the respondent submits that till March, 2018, the OTP system of verification of the Card Holders was not permitted. It was only on the introduction of the OTP system that a sudden increase in number of people taking food grains was noted and a survey was conducted by the Department to determine the veracity of such transactions. It was noted that 90 Ration Card Holders attached to the R.K. Puram Circle had taken food grains from the petitioners‟ shop situated at Chhatarpur Circle only in the month of March, 2018, after introduction of the OTP system. They did not collect such food grains in the month of January and February, 2018, when ePOS machines had been introduced only with Biometric and IRIS method of authetication. On verification, these Ration Card Holders were not found at their given address. It was further discovered that for 88 out of these 90 transactions, the petitioner did not attempt the Bio-Metric Authentication System. The plea of the petitioner that ePOS Machine was not properly working and had jumped to the OTP system is belied from the fact that for as many as 460 transactions, the petitioner was able to use the Bio-Metric System of verification, while for another 35, the petitioner applied IRIS Method. It is only in the cases of the Card Holder who did not belong to the petitioner‟s circle that such OTP System was adopted. It was further found that 44 out of 90 transactions were conducted by the petitioner at odd hours, clearly showing that these were false transactions created by the petitioner for siphoning the food grains.