IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.6363 of 2003 1. July Devi, wife of late Bhola Chaudhary, resident of village- Sheopur, P.S. Bihean, District- Bhojpur. 2. Manju Devi, wife of Sheojee Singh, resident of village- Banahi, P.S. Shahpur, District- Bhojpur. 3. Santosh Kumar Ojha, son of Sri Nand Kumar Ojha, resident of village- Jamuan, P.S. Behean, District- Bhojpur. 4. Shyam Narain Prasad, son of Sri Ramjee Mishra, resident of village- Misarauti, P.S. Behean, District- Bhojpur --- Petitioners. Versus 1. The State of Bihar. 2. The Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Food Supply and Commerce, Government of Bihar, Patna. 3. The District Magistrate/Collector, Bhojpur. 4. The Sub Divisional Officer, Jagdishpur, Subdivision, Bhojpur. --- Respondents. ******* For the petitioners: Mr. Nirmal Kumar Tripathi, Adv. For the Respondent: S.C. V. *********** 4/ 09-12-2010 Heard the parties. 2. The petitioners have approached this Court by filing the present writ petition with a prayer to set aside a resolution dated 12.07.2002 (Annexure-2) taken in a meeting held under the Chairmanship of Respondent District Magistrate/ Collector, Bhojpur, whereby certain decisions were taken about keeping control over the shops running under the Public Distribution System. Apparently, in the aforesaid resolution the name of the petitioners is not mentioned. The grievance of the petitioners is that pursuant to the aforesaid resolution, they are not being supplied the food grains for running their shops under the Public Distribution System. 2 3. From a perusal of the materials available on record, it appears that the petitioners were granted their licences under the provisions of the Bihar Trade Articles (Licences Unification) Order, 1984 (hereinafter referred to as “Unification Order, 1984). The petitioners claim that time to time their licences were renewed by the competent authority and, therefore, they are entitled to run their P.D.S. shops and the authorities are obliged to supply food grains for distribution to the general consumers under the Public Distribution System. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioners has fairly submitted that the petitioners are not in possession of any consequential orders issued in compliance of the resolution dated 12.07.2002 (Annexure-2) and, therefore, they have not brought the same on record. However, he contends that before cancelling/suspending the licences of the petitioners, they have not been given any opportunity of hearing. 5. It is relevant to mention here that now the licences for running the shops under the Public Distribution System are required to be issued under the provisions of Public Distribution System (Control) Order, 2001. All the licences issued under the provisions of Unification Order, 1984 will have to be terminated by the Licensing Authority and new licences are required to be 3 issued under the provisions of the Public Distribution System (Control) Order, 2001 in accordance with law by the competent authority. 5. In view of the changed legal circumstances and in absence of any counter-affidavit, this Court is completely handicapped to pass any positive order in the present proceeding. In that view of the matter, the petitioners are granted liberty to file their representations before the respondent- District Collector, Bhojpur, who shall look into the entire matter and take a final decision after giving opportunity of hearing to all concerned. The representations, if any by the petitioners, must be filed within a period of one month from today. If such representations are filed, then the District Collector, Bhojpur should take final decision within a period of three months thereafter. If no such representation is filed by the petitioners within the aforesaid stipulated period of one month, then it would be construed that the present writ petition has stood rejected by this Court. 6. With the aforesaid observations/directions the writ petition stands disposed of. BTiwary/ ( Birendra Prasad Verma, J.)