IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE TENTH DAY OF FEBRUARY TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 2292 of 2009 Between: Kollu Appa Rao S/o. K. Tatayya R/o.Tatiparti Post, Gollaprolu Mandal, E.G.District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Indane Area Office, 8th floor, LIC Building, Jeevan Prakash Jeevitha Bhima Marg, Visakhapatnam rep. by its Senior Area Manager, (Marketing) 2 Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Visakhapatnam, rep. by its Selection Committee. .....RESPONDENTS 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 issue a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the list of empanelled candidates for Indane Distributorship at Pithapuram, E.G. District issued by the 2nd respondent herein through communication dt. 22.1.2009 as illegal, arbitrary and void and against the Art. 14 of the Constitution of India and liable to be set aside and consequently to direct the respondents to declare the petitioner as eligible candidate and conduct a fresh interview for Indane Distributory ship at Pithapuram, E.G. District. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.V.V.N.NARAYANA RAO Counsel for the Respondents: MR.THOOMSRINIVAS The Court made the following ORDER: THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA Writ Petition No.2292 of 2009 Order: The petitioner claims that he belongs to Scheduled Caste Community and did Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) in the year 1998 from Andhra University. He states that on 01.10.2007, the first respondent along with Bharath Oil Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited jointly issued a notification calling for applications from the Scheduled Caste candidates for LPG Dealership at various places in the State of Andhra Pradesh, which includes Shankavaram and Pithapuram villages of East Godavari District. The petitioner claims to have made an application for allotment of LPG dealership for Shakavaram and Pithapuram villages. The case of the petitioner is that though he is eligible and possessed all the requisite qualifications for allotment of LPG dealership under SC category and attended for interviews on 22.10.2008 and 21.01.2009, the Dealer Selection Committee has rejected his candidature, without assigning any reasons. Hence, he filed the present writ petition. When the matter is taken up for hearing, the learned Standing Counsel for IOC appearing for the respondents, on instructions, submitted that though the petitioner was found eligible at the time of scrutiny of application by L1 Committee and called for interview, at the time of scrutiny of documents, it was observed that the clause regarding multiple distributorship i.e., I was never a signatory to dealership/distributorship agreement of any Oil Company’, was found missing in the affidavit given by the applicant and therefore, the Dealer Selection Committee rejected the candidature of the petitioner. He further submitted that the petitioner secured 23.67 marks, whereas the selected candidates secured 27 marks. Hence, he submitted that there is no illegality in the selection process. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for IOC appearing for the respondents. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, and as it is the contention of the petitioner that without assigning any reasons his candidature has been rejected, I deem it appropriate to dispose of the writ petition with a direction to the respondents to communicate the reasons to the petitioner for his non-selection for allotment of LPG dealership. The petitioner is at liberty to challenge the same in appropriate proceedings, if so chooses. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of. No costs. ___________________ N.V. RAMANA, J. Date: 10.02.2009 VGB