IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MS JUSTICE G.ROHINI WRIT PETITION NO : 5426 of 2008 Between: 1 A. Ramachandra Reddy S/o. Pulla Reddy Malkajgiri Mandal, R.R. District. 2 Y. Anjaiah S/o. Veeraiah Kapra Village, Keesara Mandal, R.R. District. 3 P. Lingam S/o. Venkat Swamy Goud, Kushaiguda Village, Keesara Mandal, R.R. District. 4 J.V. Raghava W/o. Lae Maj. J.S. Raju Ekalavyanagar, Malkajgiri Village and Mandal, R.R. District. 5 N. Venkatshwarloo S/o. N. Narasimha BJR Nagar colony, Jammagadda Kapra, Keesara Mandal, R.R. District. 6 B. Revathi W/o. Bikshapathi Yellareddyguda Village, Keesara Mandal, R.R. District. 7 A. Bharathi W/o. Muralidhar Chandrabag, Moulali, Malkajgiri Mandal, R.R. District. 8 C. Radhabai W/o. Poshetty Mulgi No.2, Plot No.24, Prema Vijaya Nagar Colony, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 9 T. Ramesh Singh S/o. Kishan Singh B.J.R. Nagar, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 10 E. Vijaykumar S/o. Bikshapathy Mulgi No.30-172/161, Vinayaknagar,Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 11 District Cooperative Marketing Society Ltd., Hyderabad, rep. by its Business Manager, FPS 170, Neredmet, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 12 V. Krishna S/o. Limbaji Rao Vinayaknagar, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 13 Ch. Venkateshwarloo S/o. Janardhan Mulgi No.27, Gayathri Nagar, Malkajgiri Mandal, R.R. District. 14 G. Anitha D/o. Narsing Rao Mulgi No.29-1492-15/14, Kakatiya Nagar, Malkajgiri Mandal, R.R. District. 15 Padmaja D/o. Venkat Raju Vinayaknagar, Neredmet, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 16 K. Ashutosh S/o. Late K. Anjaiah Mulgi No. 18-440/3, Mallikarjuna Nagar, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 17 B. Ashok S/o. Late B. Ramaiah Prashanthi Nagar, Uppal Mandal, R.R. District. 18 N.R. Jaikumar Neredmet, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 19 M. Ratanlal S/o. Motilal Malkajgiri Mandal, R.R. District. 20 D. Vani W/o. AVRK Prasad Vanasthalipuram, Vaidehi nagar, R.R. District. 21 A. Varalaxmi W/o. Venugopal 393, Shanthinagar, (Kalwancha) Hayathnagar, R.R. District. 22 T. Suvarna D/o. T. Bala Swamy Meerpet Village, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 23 S. Uma Rani W/o. S. Seshaiah Kothapet Village, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 24 K. Krishna Reddy S/o. Papi Reddy Attapur Village, Rajendranagar Mandal, R.R. District. 25 P. Chandrasekhar S/o. Krishnaiah New Padmashalipuram, Rajendranagar Mandal, R.R. District. 26 P. Uma Yadav D/o. Satyanarayana Yadav 8-5-24/12, Mailardevpally Village, Rajendranagar Mandal, R.R. District. 27 C. Srinivas Reddy S/o. Bal Reddy 8-5-41/1, Mailardevpalli village, Rajendranagar Mandal, R.R. District. 28 Ch. Sudheer S/o Prakash 5-1-43, Premavathipet Village, Rajendranagar Mandal, R.R. District. 29 K. Chittari S/o. K. Narasimha 4-8-26/B, Sikh Chavani, Attapur Village, Rajendranagar Mandal, R.R. District. 30 T. Dhanalaxmi W/o. T. Upender Prashanthnagar Colony, Chintalakunta Village, Hayatnagar Mandal, R.R. District. 31 Baddam Ananda D/o. Bikshapathi New Nagole Colony Village, Uppal Mandal R.R. District. 32 A. Shivaram S/o. A. Raj Reddy Ramakrishnapuram, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 33 M. Prasanna Vedavathi W/o. M. Ramesh NTR Nagar, Saroornagar, R.R. District. 34 T. Anitha W/o. T. Yadagiri CBI Colony, Mansoorabad, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 35 D. Kishan S/o. Dattathri Prasad Plot No.21, SBH Colony, Venture II, LB Nagar, Saroornagar, R.R. District. 36 S. Digambar Prasad S/o. S. Kishan Prasad LB Nagar, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 37 D. Usha W/o. Dura Prasad Mythrinagar, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 38 P. Chandrashekar S/o. P. Narasimha Kothapet, Saroornagar Mandal, Circle III, R.R. District. 39 M. Devendar Reddy S/o. Late Chenna Reddy Jillalaguda, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 40 Mohd. Akbar S/o. Raj Mohammed Venkateshwara Nagar, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 41 Amar Bin Hussain Dayani S/o. Hussain Ali Dayani Errakunta, Kothapet, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 42 K. Ramu S/o. K. Chandu naik Dasari Kalanagar, Jillelguda Village, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 43 M. Bharathi W/o. M Ramulu Gayathrinagar, Kharmanghat Village, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 44 Gnaneshwar S/o. Late Seetharama Chary Nagole Village, Uppal Mandal, R.R. District. 45 Ashanna S/o. G. Narsaiah Vijayapuri Colony, Nagole, Uppal Mandal, R.R. District. 46 Shiva Chakravarthy S/o. Laxminarayana 1-3-, Bandlaguda Village, Uppal Mandal, R.R. District. 47 G. Pentaiah S/o. Subbaiah Champapet, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 48 S. Kalpana W/o. Nagabhushanam Bahadurguda, LB Nagar, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 49 G. Vishnumurthy S/o. G. Rajulu Bahadurguda, LB Nagar, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 50 Kolishetti Srinivas S/o. Venkatanarayana Sahebnagar Village, Hayathnagar Mandal, R.R. District. 51 K. Vijayalaxmi W/o. LAV Prasad Subhadranagar, Vanasthalipuram, HC Colony, Hayathnagar Mandal, R.R. District. 52 A. Anjani W/o. Sridhar Hayathnagar Village and Mandal, R.R. District. 53 M. Srinivas Hayathnagar Village and Mandal, R.R. District. 54 B. Ananthamma W/o. Bikshapathi RTC Colony, Hayathnagar Mandal, R.R. District. 55 V. Laxminarsimulu S/o. Shivaramulu BN Reddy Nagar Colony, Vanasthalipuram Village, Hayathnagar Mandal, R.R. District. 56 A. Krishna S/o. Balaiah Karmanghat Village, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 57 Vallabhaneni Vanisree V. Nagesh HUDA Colony, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 58 M. Anjaiah S/o. Esthari Bharathsingh Nagar Colony, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 59 K. Laxman S/o. K. Ramaiah Champapet, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 60 R. Uma Devi W/o. R. Shankaraiah Harijan Basthi, Champapet, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 61 K. Rama Devi W/o. K. Surya Prakash 7-1-111, Bairamalguda, LB Nagar Municipality, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 62 Y. Rajya Laxmi W/o. Y.S. Narayana Vinayaknagar, Krupa Complex, Malkajgiri, R.R. District. 63 B. Ravinder S/o. B. Balaiah 1-11, Cherlapally, Ghatkesar Mandal, R.R. District. 64 K. Rajani W/o. K. Satyanarayana Reddy Room No.3, Commercial Complex, Hastinapuram, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 65 M. Neelamma W/o. Yadaiah M.No.7-121, Mansoorabad, Saroornagar Mandal, R.R. District. 66 J. Jangamma W/o. J. Muthaiah 9-152, Leninnagar, Meerpet, Saroornagar, R.R. District. 67 S. Prabhavathi W/o. S. Vishnukumar 3-23/A, Ramanthapoor, uppal Mandal, R.R. District. 68 M. Vijaya W/o. M. Krishna Reddy 8-16-199, Ramanthapur, Uppal, R.R. District. 69 A. Srinivas S/o. Rama Subbaiah Srinivas nagar, Qutbullapur mandal, R.R. District. ..... PETITIONER(S) AND 1 Govt. of A.P. rep by its Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Ex-Officio Secretary to Govt., of A.P., Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. 2 District Collector, Ranga Reddy District, at Hyderabad. 3 Revenue Divisional Officer, Chevalla Division, Ranga Reddy District. 4 Revenue Divisional Officer, Ranga Reddy East Division, Ranga Reddy District. .....RESPONDENT(S) 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 to issue any appropriate writ, order or direction preferably a writ in the nature of Writ of Mandamus, declaring the proceedings No.A5/812/2007 dated 20.02.2008 and 27.02.2008 issued by the 2nd respondent and the consequential action of the 3rd and 4th respondents in creating addtional fair price shops in Ranga Reddy district and transferring the cards from the fair price shops of the petitioners to the other shops as being illegal, arbitrary, without jurisdictin, contrary to the principles of natural justice and contrary to the proceedings in Memo CCS Ref. No.N3/14032/2006 dt. 09.03.2007 of the 1st respondent and set aside the same and consequently stay all further proceedings pursuant to the said proceedings by directing the respondents to dispose of the representations of the petitioners before creating new fair price shops in Ranga Reddy District and transferring the cards from the fair shops of the petitioners and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.O.MANOHER REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR CIVIL SUPPLIES The Court made the following : THE HON’BLE MS JUSTICE G.ROHINI W. P.No.5426 of 2008 ORDER The petitioners, who are the authorized dealers of fair price shops situated at diﬀerent places in Ranga Reddy District, ﬁled this writ petition seeking a declaration that the proceedings of the 2nd respondent-District Collector, Ranga Reddy, dated.20.02.2008 and 27.02.2008 and the consequential action taken by the respondent Nos.3 and 4 to create additional fair price shops by transferring the cards attached to the fair price shops of the petitioners, as arbitrary and illegal. Heard the learned counsel for both the parties and perused the material on record. Under the impugned proceedings dated.20.02.2008 and 27-02-2008 the 2nd respondent-District Collector, Ranga Reddy District while according sanction for creation of 198 and 130 new fair price shops respectively in GHMC area of Ranga Reddy District as proposed by the Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer of R.R. East, Chevella and Vikarabad Divisions, directed the concerned ASOs/Tahasildars to take steps for rationalization of cards from one shop to another shop by studying individual cases judiciously. The respondent Nos.3 and 4 were also permitted to take action to appoint fair price shop dealers for the new shops as per the guidelines issued by the Government following prescribed reservations. The said proceedings are challenged by the petitioners mainly on the ground that the sanction accorded by the 2nd respondent while the issuance of ration cards by adopting iris technology in the State is still in progress is arbitrary and illegal. According to the petitioners, unless the entire process of issuance of ration cards following the iris technology is completed, the exact number of eligible cardholders particularly BPL and AAY cardholders cannot be decided and consequently the need for creating new shops cannot be properly assessed. Hence the sanction accorded under the impugned proceedings is unwarranted and unjustified. It is also contended that since the representations dated. 24-11-2007 made by some of the petitioners bringing to the notice of the respondents.1 and 2 that the issuance of iris based cards has not yet been completed and requesting not to bifurcate the shops of the petitioners till the said process is completed are still under consideration, the 2nd respondent ought not to have accorded sanction for creation of new shops and rationalization of the cards which is contrary to the instructions issued by the Commissioner of Civil Supplies, A.P. dated.25-02-2006 and 09-03-2007. A detailed counter-aﬃdavit has been ﬁled by the 2nd respondent stating that the issuance of ration cards by iris technology was commenced in R.R. District on 28-05-2005 and the same was concluded by 30.04.2006 and therefore the plea of the petitioners that the process was still going on in slum areas was incorrect. It is further stated that there is an increase of 68.8% of cards in R.R. District after issuance of ration cards by adopting iris technology. It was also noticed that there was no uniformity in BPL and APL cards attached to each fair price shop in the District. Hence the Government felt it is necessary to rationalize the existing fair price shops with a minimum number of BPL cards to facilitate the cardholders to receive their monthly ration from the fair price shops at their nearest locality and also keeping in view the economic viability of fair price shop dealers. Accordingly G.O.Ms.No.35, dated.17.09.2007 was issued for rationalization of the existing fair price shops in the State. In the light of G.O.Ms.No.35, dated.17.09.2007 proposals were submitted for rationalization of the cards. It is also stated by the 2nd respondent that the impugned action of the 2nd respondent is inconformity with the guidelines issued under G.O.Ms.No.35, dated.17.09.2007 the writ petition is misconceived and devoid of any merits. The respondent Nos. 5 to 21, who worked as mid-day meal workers in diﬀerent schools and were subsequently appointed as dealers of newly created fair price shops for a period of six(6) months on temporary basis, got themselves impleaded and ﬁled a separate counter-aﬃdavit on the same lines with a prayer to dismiss the writ petition. At the outset, it is to be noted that W.P.No.24631 of 2007 ﬁled by the Fair Price Shop Dealers Welfare Association, R.R. District challenging G.O.Ms.No.35, dated.17.09.2007 was dismissed by this Court along with a batch of writ petitions by order dated.12.03.2008 thereby upholding the policy decision of the Government for bifurcation of the existing fair price shops and to rationalize the PDS net work with minimum number of BPL Cards. Apparently the impugned proceedings dated.20-02-2008 and 27-02-2008 according sanction for creation of new shops in R.R. District were issued by the 2nd respondent in terms of G.O.Ms.No.35, dated.17.09.2007. It is true that under G.O.Ms.No.35, dated 17.09.2007 certain norms were prescribed in the rationalization of the fair price shops and the number of iris based cards to be attached to each fair price shop in the Corporation was ﬁxed as 600 to 650 BPL cards and 400 pink cards. However, it is not the case of the petitioners that consequent to impugned proceedings creating new shops, they would be left with less than the minimum cards prescribed under G.O.Ms.No.35, dated.17.09.2007. As a matter of fact, that stage has not yet come since the concerned Assistant Supply Oﬃcers/Tahsildars are yet to take the necessary steps for rationalization of cards from one shop to another shop after studying individual cases. The only allegation made by the petitioners that the issuance of ration cards by following the iris technology is still in process has been denied by the 2nd respondent in his counter-affidavit. The stand taken by the 2nd respondent that the said process was completed on 30-04-2006 itself could not be contradicted by the petitioners. So far as the circular dated.25-02-2006 issued by the Commissioner of Civil Supplies, A.P. Hyderabad, directing the Collectors of the Districts not to transfer any cards is concerned, as rightly submitted by the learned Government Pleader, the said instructions were issued while the issuance of ration cards with iris based technology was in progress. Once the said process is completed, the instructions issued by the Commissioner of Civil Supplies have no application at all. Even the Circular dated 9.3.2007 which was issued by way of clariﬁcation to some of the District Collectors has no application to Rangareddy District, since the process of issuance of iris based technology was completed in the said District in 2006 itself. Consequently there is no prohibition to transfer the cards from one shop to other following the norms prescribed under G.O.Ms.No.35, dated.17-09-2007. The further plea of the petitioners that if new shops are created by bifurcating the cards attached to their shops their source of livelihood would be eﬀected, is also without any substance. The law is well settled that a Fair Price Shop dealer has no right to be appointed as such dealer and by reducing the number of cards his right to trade under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution of India cannot be said to have been aﬀected in any manner. As a matter of fact, while issuing G.O.Ms.No.35 dated. 17-09-2007 the Government has also taken into consideration the economic viability of the fair price shop dealers and accordingly ﬁxed the minimum number of cards to be attached to the shops in rural areas, urban areas and Corporations. For the aforesaid reasons absolutely no case is made out to hold that the impugned proceedings as arbitrary or illegal or interdict the further steps pursuant to the said proceedings. Hence, the interference by this Court is not warranted. Accordingly the writ petition is dismissed. No order as to costs. ___________ G.ROHINI,J 13th October,2008 *TSNR