Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd & Ors vs Atulanand Singh on 18 November, 2021
18
Court
No. 11 18.11.2021 MAT 965 of 2021
G.S.Da
s With
CAN 1 of 2021
[
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd & Ors.
-Vs-
Atulanand Singh
(Via Video Conference)
Mr. Jaydip Kar
Mr. Amit Kr. Nag
... for the Appellants
Mr. Debabrata Saha Roy
Mr. P. Bhattacharyya
Mr. Neil Basu
... for the Respondent.
Party/Parties is/are represented in the order of their
name/names as printed above in the cause title.
Under Challenge in this appeal is the order of the
Hon'ble Single Bench dated 16 th August, 2021 passed in
the writ petition being WPA 4839 of 2021.
By the order impugned the Hon'ble Single Bench
was pleased to dispose of the writ petition by setting aside
the order impugned therein passed by the
appellants/Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) refusing
to grant the LPG distributorship advertised for a particular
location in favour of the writ petitioner/the respondent in
this appeal.
Mr. Kar, Learned Counsel appearing for the
appellants/IOCL, makes a brief up-front submission. It is
submitted that the Hon'ble Single Bench in the course of
its elaborate discussion, failed to notice the simple fact that
the candidature of the writ petitioner/the respondent was
liable to be rejected at the threshold on the basis of the
declaration offered by him that in case the same land is
offered by any other candidate for the same location, the
candidature of the writ petitioner/the respondent is liable
to be cancelled.
Mr. Kar draws the attention of this Court to the
application of the wife of the writ petitioner/the respondent
to the effect that the same plots of land were offered by the
wife to claim the same LPG distributorship.
It is submitted that neither the Ministry of Petroleum
nor the Hon'ble Single Bench could have proceeded to
examine whether any other steps were required to be taken
beyond the application/declaration stage prior to canceling
the candidature of the writ petitioner/the respondent.
Further submissions are made by Learned Counsel
for the appellants in support of the above grounds.
Several facts are brought to the notice of this Court.
Submissions are also placed by Mr. Saha Roy,
Learned Counsel for the respondent/writ petitioner.
Mr. Saha Roy submits that it is not in dispute that
any third party interest is involved and the applying
candidates are husband and wife. The plots offered belong
to the same family.
Accordingly, the Hon'ble Single Bench was correct in
taking a holistic view by granting of the LPG distributorship
in favour of the husband with the knowledge that the wife
has withdrawn her candidature.
Having heard the parties and considering the
materials placed, this Court is of the view that on the
ground as recorded above taken by the appellants, the
judgment impugned of the Hon'ble Single Bench requires
closer examination on merits.
There shall accordingly be a stay of operation of the
order dated 16th August, 2021 passed in the writ petition.
The appellants shall not create any third party rights
over the dealership in issue without the leave of the Court.
Since this Court is informed that all papers
connected to the appeal are annexed to the stay
application, the appeal will be next heard on the stay
application itself.
The appellants are directed to prepare Informal
Paper Book(s) on the basis of the stay application with
proper pagination.
Let the matter next appear under the heading
"Hearing (Gr.-VIII)" in the Combined Monthly List of
January, 2022.
All parties to act on a server copy of this order duly
obtained from the official website of the Hon'ble High
Court, Calcutta.
(Krishna Rao, J.) (Subrata Talukdar,J.)
