IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE TWENTY FOURTH DAY OF JULY TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.14894 of 2009 Between: M.Hemachandra Kumar S/o.late M.Narayanappa Setty R/o.D.No.7-6-229/A, Mitta Street, Tirupathi City, Chittoor District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The State of Andhra Pradesh, represented by its District Collector (Civil Supplies), Chittoor District, Chittoor. 2 The Deputy Tahsildar (Enforcement), Civil Supplies Department, Tirupathi, Chittoor District. 3 The Assistant Supply Officer (Urban), Civil Supplies Tirupathi, Chittoor District. .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.V.R.REDDY KOVVURI Counsel for the Respondents: AGP FOR CIVIL SUPPLIES The Court made the following : ORDER: This Writ Petition is filed for a Mandamus to set aside Order, dated 22-07-2009, of respondent No.1-Collector, Civil Supplies, Chittoor District, whereby he ordered for public auction of pulses worth Rs.9,71,939/- seized from the custody of the petitioner. Heard Sri V.R.Reddy Kovvuri, learned Counsel for the Petitioner, and the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Civil Supplies appearing for the respondents. The petitioner is a dealer in food grains and pulses. His business premises was intercepted by a team of Civil Supplies Officials, who, allegedly, found that the petitioner was not holding license and failed to produce the bill books, stock registers and other registers prescribed for carrying on the business in food grains and pulses. Therefore, the stock was seized and ordered to be sold by the impugned proceedings. At the hearing, the learned Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner could not get his license renewed for bonafide reasons and that the stock register and bill books were handed over to the auditor, and as such, they could not be produced at the time of inspection. In view of the admitted fact that the petitioner was found carrying on the business without getting his food grains license, which expired on 31-03-2009, renewed and that he failed to produce the registers at the time of inspection, I do not find the impugned Order of respondent No.1, directing sale of the seized food grains in public auction, suffering from any illegality. Whether the petitioner had valid justification for not getting his license renewed and not producing the registers is required to be adjudicated in the proceedings under Section 6-A of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (for short ‘the Act’), which are pending. To ensure that the food grains, which are stored contrary to the extant Control Order, reach the public so that there may be some respite for them from the sky rocketing prices of the pulses, the measure taken by the Collector to put it in public auction does not suffer from any arbitrariness or illegality. On the other hand, such a measure, in the opinion of this Court, is very much essential in the present circumstances. By putting the seized pulses to public auction, the same stock will fetch the highest market price, and therefore, such a course does not cause prejudice to the interest of the petitioners either. If the petitioner succeeds in the pending proceedings before respondent No.1, he will get back the value of the sold stock. Therefore, I do not find any merit in this Writ Petition and the same is, accordingly dismissed. As a sequel to dismissal of the Writ Petition, WPMP.No.19511 of 2009 filed by the petitioner for interim relief is disposed of as infructuous. ___________________________ (C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J) 24th July, 2009 lur