IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION NO : 15178 of 2005 Between: Om Sai Ram Dwacra Group, rep by its president A.Appalakonda, W/o.Nookaraju R/o.K.J.Puram Village Madugula (M) Visakhapatnam District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 District Collector, Visakhapatnam District Visakhapatnam. 2 Joint Collector, Visakhapatnam District, Visakhapatnam. 3 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Narsipatnam Visakhapatnam District. 4 The Mandal Revenue Officer Madugula (M) Visakhapatnam District. 5 P.Appalakonda, W/o.Ramulu K.J.Puram Madugula (M) Visakhapatnam District. .....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 to issue a writ, order or direction more particulalry one in the nature of writ of Certiorari calling for entire records connected to R.P.No.10/2004, dt.26.2.2005 passed by the 1st respondet, examine and quash the same and allow the said revision by duly setting aside the order of 2nd respondent passedin AC No.14/2004 CSR 7, Dt.3.11.2004 and upheld petitioners appointment as fair price shop dealer for the villge K.J.Puram by 3rd respondent in Proc.R.C.No.785/2004/B, dt.25.9.2004 and consequently direct the respondents to continue him as fair price shop dealer for the village K.J.Puram and pass such other orders or order. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.NIMMAGADDA SATYANARAYANA Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR CIVIL SUPPLIES The Court made the following Order: THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.15178 of 2005 ORDER: The Assistant Collector, Narsipatnam, issued a notiﬁcation inviting applications from Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWACRA) groups for authorising dealership of Fair Price Shop (FPS) at K J Puram Village, Madugula Mandal. The petitioner, which is a DWACRA group, was authorised by proceedings dated 25.09.2004. Fourth respondent preferred an appeal to the Joint Collector, second respondent herein. By order dated 03.11.2004 the appellate authority set aside the orders of the Assistant Collector and directed to renotify the vacancy. This was assailed by the petitioner before ﬁrst respondent by way of revision, which was dismissed on 26.02.2005. This is challenged in this writ petition. The only point raised in this writ petition is that it is competent for the Assistant Collector to appoint DWACRA group as FPS dealer under para 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Commodities (Regulation of Distribution by Card System) Order, 1973 (1973 Control Order, for brevity). A perusal of para 5 of 1973 Control Order does not empower the competent authority to reserve any vacancy exclusively for DWACRA groups. 1973 Control Order was superseded by the Andhra Pradesh State Public Distribution System Control Order, 2001 (2001 Control Order, for brevity) and para 5 thereof enables the competent oﬃcer to consider DWACRA groups or registered women voluntary consumer organisations or thrift groups like Podupu Lakshmi or Cooperative Societies and Government undertakings. All these groups do not have any reservation, but their cases have to be considered subject to preferences and reservations as may be prescribed by the Government. The petitioner has not brought to the notice of this Court any such Government order reserving FPS to DWACRA groups. However, it is not denied by the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Civil Supplies that DWACRA groups only get preference. It is well settled that when preference is provided, it only means that when two persons are equal, one will be preferred over the other based on relevant Government order. In that view of the matter this Court does not ﬁnd any inﬁrmity in the impugned order of the District Collector conﬁrming the order of the Joint Collector. The writ petition is misconceived and the same is accordingly dismissed. No costs. _____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 20th October, 2008 GHN To 1 District Collector, Visakhapatnam District Visakhapatnam. 2 Joint Collector, Visakhapatnam District, Visakhapatnam. 3 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Narsipatnam Visakhapatnam District. 4 The Mandal Revenue Officer Madugula (M) Visakhapatnam District. 5 2CCs to GP for Civil Supplies 6 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{MPL}