IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) PRESENT: THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY TUESDAY, THE FOURTH DAY OF MARCH, TWO THOUSAND EIGHT ONLY WRIT PETITION No.759 of 2008 Between: M/s. Rohini Teja Gas Agency, rep by its licensee Smt. Mamidi Prasanthi W/o Seshu Kumar, Door No. 72-2-14, Baba Nagar, A.B.A. Road, Rajamundry, East Godavari District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Joint Collector (Civil Supplies) East Godavari Dsitrict at Kakinada. 2 The District Collector, East Godavari District at Kakinada. 3 The deputy Manager (LPG-Sales) Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Visakhpatnam. .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the petitioners: Sri P.Veera Reddy. Counsel for the respondents: Asst. Govt. Pleader for Civil Supplies for R1 & R.2 Sri P.V.Sanjay Kumar for R.3. The Court made the following: ORDER:- This Writ Petition is filed for a Writ of Mandamus to declare the action of respondent No.3 in not supplying LPG Cylinders to the petitioner to enable it to carryon the business in view of CCS Proceedings No.E2/6930/2007, dated 1-10-2007 passed by the Commissioner of Civil Supplies, Hyderabad, as illegal, irregular, arbitrary and unjust. The petitioner also sought for a direction to the respondents to forbear from taking any further steps to cancel the license of the petitioner. On certain allegations, the petitioner’s LPG distribution license was suspended by the Joint Collector (Civil Supplies), East Godavari District (respondent No.1 herein) on 19-9-2007. The said order, having been questioned in appeal before the Commissioner of Civil Supplies, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, was suspended by order dated 1-10-2007 and the case was remanded to the Collector, East Godavari District (respondent No.2 herein) with a direction to him to dispose of the case within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the said order. Following the said order, respondent No.2 issued proceedings dated 6-11-2008, whereby he restored the license of the petitioner and permitted it to commence the business transactions, pending finalization of proceedings under Section 6-A of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. On the ground that the respondent No.3 has not resumed the supplies, despite restoration of its license, the petitioner filed the present Writ Petition. In the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of respondent No.3 it is, inter alia, stated that the Indian Oil Corporation (for short “the Corporation”) issued a show- cause notice dated 3-1-2008 to the petitioner to explain as to why its distribution agreement shall not be terminated; that the same was personally received by its Proprietrix-M.Prasanthi on 4-1-2008; that by letter dated 16-1-2008 the petitioner sought for extension of time by 20 days, i.e, upto 7-2-2008, for submitting an explanation; and that though the request of the petitioner was not convincing, the Corporation acceded to the same and has not passed final orders awaiting explanation from the petitioner. It is further averred that after suspension of Form-B license, the entire equipment and records were transferred to an alternate distributor; and that in view of the same and major irregularities committed by the petitioner, resumption of supplies to the petitioner was not made, pending receipt of the reply from the petitioner to the show-cause notice dated 3-1-2008. After hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the Corporation, I am of the view that so long as the competent authority of the Corporation has not passed any order either suspending or terminating the agreement between the petitioner and the Corporation, the petitioner is entitled to distribute the gas under the agreement. The learned Standing Counsel for the Corporation, however, stated that since the petitioner has not filed its explanation till recently, no order could be passed in that regard. Under these circumstances, the Writ Petition is disposed of. Liberty is given to the competent Authority of respondent No.3- Corporation to pass appropriate orders on the explanation said to have been received from the petitioner to the show-cause notice dated 3-1- 2008 within a period of two weeks from today. If no such order is passed within the said period, the Corporation shall resume supplies to the petitioner. Subject to the above observations, the Writ Petition is disposed of. As a sequel to disposal of the main Writ Petition, WVMP No.231 of 2008 and WPMP No.907 of 2008 are disposed of as infructuous. ----------------------------------- --- C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY,J 04-3-2008 Note: Issue CC in two days. (BO) MNR