IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Writ Petition No. 551 (M/S) of 2011 Umesh Kumar Sharma …Petitioner Versus District Magistrate, Dehradun and others …Respondents Hon’ble Tarun Agarwala, J. Heard Sri Gopal K. Verma, the learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Subhash Upadhyaya, the learned brief holder for the respondents. Since there is no factual dispute, the writ petition is being disposed of at the admission stage itself. The petitioner holds three arms licence. A notice dated 1st March, 2011 was issued by the competent authority to show cause why his licence should not be cancelled. This notice was apparently served upon the mother-in-law of the petitioner on 15th March, 2011. The notice indicated that the petitioner was required to file a reply on or before 17th March, 2011. On 17th March, 2011, the Advocate of the petitioner appeared and prayed for a short time to enable him to file an appropriate reply. Without giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, the authority, on the basis of the report submitted by the Station House Officer and the Superintendent of Police, has passed the impugned order suspending the licence of the petitioner. The petitioner, being aggrieved, has filed the present writ petition. Even though, the petitioner has an efficacious remedy of filing an appeal questioning the 2 suspension order, this Court finds it to be a fit case to interfere in a writ jurisdiction on the sole ground that appropriate opportunity of hearing was not provided to the petitioner before passing the suspension order. On this short ground, the impugned order cannot be sustained and is quashed. The writ petition is allowed. The impugned order is quashed. The petitioner would appear before the competent authority on 7th April, 2011, along with the certified copy of this order and shall file such objection to the notice dated 1st March, 2011. The authority, after considering the reply of the petitioner and such other reports, will pass appropriate orders. The certified copy of this order shall be made available to the learned counsel for the parties within 24 hours. The Brief Holder for the State will intimate the authority concerned about this order. (Tarun Agarwala, J.) 29-03-2011 Salim/