IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.14283 of 2010 RAMASHISH CHOUBEY, son of late Radha Krishna Choubey, resident of village- Indaur, P.S. Itharhi, District- Buxar….. Petitioner Versus 1. THE UNION OF INDIA through the Secretary, Department of Petroleum and Natural Gases, Government of India, New Delhi. 2. The Secretary, Department of Petroleum and Natural Gases, Government of India. 3. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited through its Senior Regional Manager, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Bhawan, 6th Floor, Dak Bungalow Chowk, Patna. 4. Abhay Kumar Singh @ Abhay Singh, son of Shiv Shankar Singh, resident of village- Dalsagar, P.O. Churamanpur, P.S. Buxar (Industrial), District-Buxar. 5. The State of Bihar through the District Magistrate, Buxar. 6. The Block Development Officer, Buxar, District-Buxar….. Respondents ----------- 2. 1.9.2010 Heard learned counsels for the petitioner, for the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and for the State. The petitioner seeks quashing of the letter dated 20.7.2010 issued by the Senior Regional Manager, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. by which the objection raised by the petitioner regarding grant of allotment of dealership for retail outlet to respondent No.4 has been rejected. The petitioner along with respondent No.4 and others had applied for grant of dealership for a retail outlet of the respondent Corporation on the basis of advertisement published on 20.6.2009 (Annexure-1) with respect to a location in between Chiraiyatand More and Indaur Aircel Tower in the - 2 - district of Buxar. Ultimately, in the select list which was prepared, respondent No.4 was placed at serial No.1 and the petitioner was at serial No.2. The petitioner filed a complaint before the authorities of the respondent Corporation on 5.1.2010. On the same being not entertained, the petitioner filed a writ petition being C.W.J.C. No.1180/2010. The said writ application was dismissed by order dated 27.1.2010 of this Court with liberty to the petitioner to approach the concerned authorities of the Corporation, who were directed to respond to the same within a timeframe as per the guidelines. Pursuant to the same, the petitioner approached the authorities again alleging two points; firstly, that respondent No.4 was a resident of Ara and his name appears in the voter list of 194 Ara Vidhan Sabha area and he is residing in Ara for several years in his permanent residence and the certificate obtained by him from the Circle Officer of his ancestral village of Dalsagar in Buxar District does not reflect the correct position. The other ground taken by the petitioner was that the land taken by respondent No.4 was owned by six persons but the lease has been - 3 - granted only by one of the landlords. The authorities of the respondent Corporation investigated the complaint and after verifying the certificates and also on the basis of residence certificate dated 10.6.2010 issued by the District Magistrate, Buxar came to the conclusion that respondent No.4 is a resident of Buxar District. With regard to the other complaint it was found that the allegation was also unfounded and the executor of the lease deed was the sole owner of the plot and the lease was for a period of 30 years. It was further found during the investigation that the petitioner himself has offered a land of which he was merely one of the inheritors and there was no consent from the other co-owners. Accordingly, the respondent authorities came to the conclusion that the complaints were unsubstantiated but it was held that before issuance of letter of intent the residence verification of the first empanelled candidate has to be done through verification of certificates submitted and physical verification of residence and if it was not found in line with actual facts, needful action would be taken including cancellation of empanelment. - 4 - Learned counsel for the petitioner has again sought to raise the same facts, which have already been investigated by the respondent authorities and held against him on the basis of the certificates of the concerned authorities. This Court in its writ jurisdiction does not sit as a Court of Appeal on the finding of facts over the authorities of the respondent Corporation and its only concern is to see that the decision making process is not vitiated. Once the authorities have come to a particular decision by following the correct process of decision making and have not committed any gross or palpable errors so as to make the decision perverse, then this Court will ordinarily not interfere in its writ jurisdiction. Moreover, the authorities have fairly stated in the order dated 16.7.2010 that they would again verify the certificates as also the physical verification of the residence of respondent No.4 before the letter of intent is issued. Thus, their action appears to be fair and reasonable and in accordance with the guidelines applicable to the case. This Court, however, on a consideration of - 5 - the facts and materials on the record finds that there are materials to show that while the ancestral village of respondent No.4 is located in the District of Buxar but he has got himself enrolled in the voter list of Ara 194 Vidhan Sabha area. In the ordinary course a person who claims to be a permanent resident of Buxar would not get himself enrolled as a voter in Bhojur District, unless he has taken residence in the said District. The said aspect of the matter is also required to be investigated by the authorities while making physical verification of the residence of respondent No.4. It has been held by the Apex Court that in the matter of allotment of retail outlet by the Oil Companies the essential aspect to be considered is the de facto or actual residence of a person and not merely his de jure residence in ancestral village, and the authorities shall keep the said proposition of law also in mind while making physical verification of the place where respondent No.4 actually resides. The writ application is, accordingly, dismissed with the aforesaid observations and directions. VPS ( Ramesh Kumar Datta, J. )