IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.21218 of 2011 ====================================================== Satya Narayan Gupta S/O Late Phatuli Prasad Gupta Resident Of Village And P.O- Basantpur, P.S- Birpur, District- Supaul, .... .... Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar Through The Deputy Development Commissioner, District Development Agency, Supaul, District- Supaul, 2. The District Certificate Officer, Supaul, District- Supaul, 3. The Block Development Officer, Basantpur, District- Supaul, 4. Block Program Officer, Basantpur, District- Supaul, .... .... Respondents ====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner : Mr. Shreekant Labh, Advocate For the Respondent/s : MrY.P. Sinha, AAG 12 ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE DR. JUSTICE RAVI RANJAN ORAL ORDER 2 11-02-2014 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the State. In view of the admitted position that issues involved in this case are identical to those which have been considered in order dated 21.10.2011 passed in C.W.J.C. No. 8609 of 2009(Raj Kumar Paswan v. The State of Bihar and others), this writ application is also being disposed of in terms thereof operative portion of which is being reproduced as under: “In the circumstances aforesaid, I do not think it proper to remand this matter back to the District Authorities, rather it must be referred to a higher authority, who would be able to consider the audit report, the role of the District Authorities and the very limited role of the Public Distribution System Dealers, who were merely required to keep the stock with them for distribution by the District level Authorities. As such, this matter is referred to the Patna High Court CWJC No.21218 of 2011 (2) dt.11-02-2014 2 Secretary, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Bihar, Patna who may pass appropriate orders in this case. I may also observe that even if it is presumed that rice can be sold, it would be impossible to sell the quantity of rice which must have been decomposed by virtue of passage of time at the APL rate. Perhaps, the Secretary may consider retrieving the rice in whatever condition it is from the Public Distribution System Dealers and deal with it accordingly instead of asking the dealers to sell the decomposed rice at the APL rate. This writ application is disposed of with the aforesaid observations and directions.” The matter is being referred to the Principal Secretary, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Bihar, Patna who may pass appropriate orders in this case by reasoned and speaking order expeditiously. Petitioner would be required to appear before the Principal Secretary, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Bihar, Patna within a period of six weeks along with a copy of this order as well as a copy of order dated 21.10.2011 passed in C.W.J.C. No. 8609 of 2009(Raj Kumar Paswan v. The State of Bihar and others). However, if the Principal Secretary is of the opinion that some other department would be competent to take a decision then he would be at liberty to immediately refer the matter to the Principal Secretary of that Department. Thereafter, a decision would be required to be taken Patna High Court CWJC No.21218 of 2011 (2) dt.11-02-2014 3 by such Principal Secretary. The decision taken by the Principal Secretary, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Bihar, Patna should immediately be communicated to the petitioner as well as the Certificate Officer, Supaul for doing the needful. Till the final decision is communicated to the Certificate Officer concerned no coercive action would be taken against the petitioner in Certificate Case No. 54/11-12 for recovery of said amount. Accordingly, this writ application is disposed of with the aforesaid observations and directions. SC/- (Dr. Ravi Ranjan, J)