IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION NO : 23965 of 2004 Between: Lokini Yellaiah, S/o. Gangaram, 1st Ward, Jagital, Village & Mandal, Karimnagar District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The District Collector, Karimangar. 2 The Joint Collector & Addl, District, Magistrate, Karimangar. 3 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Jagtial, Karimangar District. 4 The Mandal Revenue Officer, Jagtial, Karimangar District. 5 Adepu Mamatha, D/o. Gangaram, R/o. Near Khilagadda, Jagital, Karimnagar 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 in the nature of Writ of Mandamus directing the 3rd respondent herein to conduct fresh selection for appointment of Fair Price shop dealer in respect of Shop No. 1928 situated at Jagtial Town, by giving opportunity to the petition and other eligible candidates by duly declaring the action of the 3srd respondent in not calling the petitioner for interview and not conducting interview to the petitioner, though, he was verymuch present in the oﬃce of 3rd respondent at the time of conducting interview on 238-2004 fromm 10 AM onwards till the completion of interview of all the candidates, eventhough, the petitioner is fully qualiﬁed and eligible and belongs to ST community and selecting and appointing the 5th respondent as fair price shop dealer is respect of Shop No. 1928 situated at Jagtial Town and also the order passed by the 2nd respondent dismissing the appeal ﬁled by the petitioner questioning the action of the 3rd respondent in selecting and appointing of the 5th respondent as fair price shop Shop No. 1928 situated at Jagtial Town vide N.B/1417-6/2004, dt. 28-8- 2004 as illegal, arbitrary and violative of Art. 14,15 and 6 of the Constitution of India apart from violation of provisions of A.P. Public Distribution System (Control) Order 2001 and pass such other order or orders Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.V.RAVI KIRAN RAO 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.23965 of 2004 ORDER: The petitioner is aggrieved by the selection and appointment of authorized Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealer in respect of shop No.1928 of Jagital town. He seeks a direction to the Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer (RDO) - third respondent herein to conduct fresh selection after giving an opportunity to him and other eligible candidates. The case of the petitioner, in brief, may be noticed. RDO issued a notiﬁcation dated 30.07.2004 inviting applications for appointment of FPS dealers for 14 FPSs - six FPSs in Jagtial town and remaining in other villages in Jagitial Mandal. The petitioner belongs to schedule tribe (ST) category. He submitted an application in respect of FPS No.1928. Interviews were to be held on 09.08.2004. However, the interviews were postponed to 16.08.2004 and were conducted on 23.08.2004. The petitioner alleges that after postponement, candidates were not informed of the interviews and though he went to oﬃce of RDO on 23.08.2004, he was not called for interview though he waited from morning to evening. Therefore, the petitioner filed instant writ petition. RDO ﬁled a counter-aﬃdavit stating that as per the notiﬁcation interviews were scheduled to be conducted on 11.08.2004, however, they could not be held on that day. The interviews were taken up on 23.08.2004. As a practice original certiﬁcates of all the candidates were veriﬁed and they were sent to the chambers of RDO one after the other. The petitioner did not produce the original certiﬁcates and did not attend to the interview though he was present on that day. The other allegations made by the petitioner are denied. The petitioner has not ﬁled any reply-aﬃdavit denying the counter averments. Therefore, the counter averments are admitted. Admittedly the interviews were postponed from 11.08.2004 to 23.08.2004. When the interviews were taken up on 23.08.2004 the petitioner was very much present in oﬃce of RDO. When the original certiﬁcates of other candidates were being veriﬁed, it was the duty of the petitioner to produce his original certificates for verification. He did not do so. As admitted by him in paragraph 4 of the aﬃdavit accompanying the writ petition, he went to the oﬃce of RDO on 23.08.2004, waited there till evening, but did not produce the original certificates for verification. In that view of the matter, the selection process cannot be faulted. The counter-aﬃdavit reveals that RDO has followed a fair procedure giving opportunity to all the candidates for completing the selection. The writ petition is misconceived and the same is accordingly dismissed. No costs. _____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 17th October, 2008 GHN To 1 The District Collector, Karimangar. 2 The Joint Collector & Addl, District, Magistrate, Karimangar. 3 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Jagtial, Karimangar District. 4 The Mandal Revenue Officer, Jagtial, Karimangar District. 5 2CCs to GP for Civil Supplies 6 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{RLD}