IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.16423 of 2004 Between M.Venkata Subbaiah, S/o.Venkata Ramaiah, Palem Kota Village, Venkatagiri Mandal, Nellore Dist. ..... Petitioner AND 1 The District Collector, Nellore. 2 The Joint Collector, Nellore. 3 The Revenue Divisional officer, Gudur Nellore Dist. 4 The M.R.O., Venkatagiri, Nellore Dist. 5 B.Chenchaiah, S/o.Penchalaiah, R/o.Palemkota village, Venkatagiri Mandal, Nellore Dist. .....Respondents Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to issue an order, direction or writ, more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the order of the 1st respondent vide D.Dis.(E).1990/2002 dt.6-9-2004, where under he remanded the case to R.D.O. the 3rd respondent herein to issue fresh notiﬁcation and select the appropriate candidate as illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the provisions of Andhra Pradesh State public Distribution system control order, 2001 and the guide lines issued by the Government for appointment of F.P. shop dealers and set-aside the same and consequently declare the order of the R.D.O. Gudur passed in D.Dis.1514/2001 dt.18-2-2002 as legal and valid and direct the respondents 1 to 4 to continue the petitioner as F.P.Shop dealer of Palemkota village, Venkatagiri Mandal, Nellore District. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.V.SUDHAKAR REDDY Counsel for the Respondents to 4: GP FOR CIVIL SUPPLIES Counsel for the Respondent No.5: NONE APPEARED The Court made the following: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.16423 of 2004 ORDER: Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealer of Palemkota village of Venkatagiri Mandal in Nellore District, relinquished authorization, resulting in vacancy. Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer (RDO), Gudur, issued notiﬁcation on 03.1.2001 inviting applications. Petitioner, ﬁfth respondent and two others applied seeking FPS authorization. Petitioner was appointed by proceedings dated 18.2.2002. On an appeal ﬁled by ﬁfth respondent, Joint Collector, Nellore, allowed appeal on 14.11.2002, directing RDO to renotify vacancy. Petitioner challenged the same in a revision before the District Collector speciﬁcally raising a ground that he has not given reasonable opportunity by appellate authority. Revisional authority while setting aside the order of Joint Collector, further directed RDO to issue fresh notiﬁcation, aggrieved by which the present writ petition is filed. Only ground urged by petitioner is that when ﬁrst respondent ﬁled appeal before Joint Collector, appellate authority did not give any notice and passed orders behind his back. Indeed, a similar ground was urged by petitioner in his revision petition. The same is not even adverted to nor any reason is given for directing RDO to issue fresh notification. Though notice is served on ﬁfth respondent, none appears and it is brought to the notice of this Court that ﬁfth respondent is employed as a Teacher in Nava Bharath School. Be that as it is, as the appeal ﬁled by ﬁfth respondent was allowed without any notice to petitioner, order of Joint Collector and order of District Collector are liable to be set aside. Accordingly they are set aside and the matter is remitted to District Collector, Nellore, to issue notice to petitioner and dispose of the matter within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. The writ petition is accordingly allowed. No costs. ______________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) October 20, 2008 YS To 1 The District Collector, Nellore. 2 The Joint Collector, Nellore. 3 The Revenue Divisional officer, Gudur Nellore Dist. 4 The M.R.O., Venkatagiri, Nellore Dist. 5 Two CCs to the Government Pleader for Civil Supplies, High Court Buildings, Hyderabad. (OUT) 6 Two C.D. Copies.