IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.16115 of 2006 SHEO NARAYAN SINGH Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS ----------- 2 28/1/2009 Heard counsel for the petitioner. The petitioner being aggrieved by the order dated 17.11.2000 passed by the Subdivisional Officer in the capacity of Licensing Authority under the Public Distribution System as also the consequential appellate and revisional order dated 3.6.2001 and 26.10.2004 has moved this Court for quashing all the aforementioned three orders on the ground that as a matter of fact the petitioner did not violate the terms and conditions of the license. Counsel for the petitioner in fact relied on a judgment of this Court in a similar case and in fact of the same transaction being order dated 9.8.2006 in C.W.J.C. No. 15693 of 2004. In the opinion of this Court the findings arrived at in the order dated 9.8.2006 being based on some definite information that in that case there was at least compliance of Clause 2 of the 2 License, in as much as, information in writing was given within 72 hours by the petitioner of that case, would make this case distinguishable, in as much as, in the present case there is no dispute that the petitioner in person had never informed the Licensing Authority. Reliance placed by the petitioner on Annexure-4 an application submitted by four persons, namely, Balaji Singh, Gulab Chandra Sah, Kailash Prasad Gupta and Shahid Khan is also wholly misplaced because that cannot be treated to be an application given by the petitioner. That apart, the application Annexure-4 had been allegedly filed before the Block Development Officer, Dinara who is not the Licensing Authority whereas the Licensing Authority under the unification order is the Subdivisional Officer. This Court can also not ignore the requirement of Clause 2 of the License which reads as follows:- “If the license intends to store the trade articles in place other those they specified above, he shall give information in writing to the Licensing Authority 3 within a period of seventy two hours of actually storing of these trade articles therein. He shall also produce the license before the Licensing Authority within a fortnight of his giving information mentioned above, for the purpose of making requisite changes.” The admitted position, therefore, is that the petitioner had never informed the Licensing Authority, i.e, the Subdivisional Officer and some information given by the aforementioned four persons cannot be either compliance of Clause 2 of the License in question of the petitioner. Counsel for the petitioner, however, submitted that this was the document which was relied by the learned Single Judge as token of proof of information to the Licensing Authority. This Court is not in a position to accept the said submission, in as much as, the learned Single Judge in that case has proceeded on an admitted fact that information was given to the Licensing Authority within 72 hours by the petitioner in that case. That being so, on the own admission 4 of the petitioner that he had never informed the Subdivisional Officer with regard to storage of food articles lifted on 4th August, 2000 prior to raid, search and seizure, his case cannot be said to be at par with or at the same footing as of the petitioner in C.W.J.C. No. 15693 of 2004. Once this position becomes unassailable, next question would be whether three authorities, namely, S.D.O., Collector and the Commissioner in their impugned orders have applied themselves to the facts of the case of the petitioner. From a bare reading of the three orders this Court is fully satisfied that the main question was gone into by all the authorities in the light of defence of the petitioner who have recorded a finding of fact that Clause 2 of the License was clearly infringed by the petitioner by not informing to the authority with regard to storage of food articles. That being so, this Court would find no reason to interfere with the 5 finding of fact and accordingly this application being devoid of any merit is hereby dismissed. (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.) Abhay Kumar