- (1.)The petitioner, a holder of fair price shop authorisation, is before this Court being aggrieved of order dated 25th April 2006, whereby the authorisation is cancelled and deposit amount of Rs.2,500/- is forfeited.
(2.)The case of the petitioner is that the order impugned is vitiated on account of non observance of principles of natural justice. The case of the petitioner is that the petitioner was served with show cause notice dated 2nd March 2006, whereby he was called upon to show cause as to why his authorisation should not be cancelled and why the amount of deposit either in full or in part be not forfeited. He was also called upon to explain as to why his authorisation should not be suspended. The petitioner was granted 15 days time to present his explanation and was asked to remain personally present, if he wants to make personal representation, on 16th March 2006.
(3.)The petitioner as per legal advice available to him served the District Supply Officer (hereinafter referred to as 'DSO') with letter dated 11th March 2006 and called upon him to supply documents mentioned in the said letter. The documents which are asked for, show the working of the mind of the petitioner. He demanded 'all the documents related to his case', collected by the authorities during the inspection of the business premises of the petitioner on various dates, mentioned in the show cause notice. He also asked for copies of all the bill books, stock register, sale register, etc., which as per the say of the petitioner were seized from his business premises. Had the demand stopped with this, the bona fides of the petitioner would not have come under cloud. But then he demanded that if any investigation is made at the place of 'Sanchalaks' who have any connection with the petitioner then all papers related to those investigations like the statements of 'Sanchalaks', their accounting record, photographs taken at the place of the 'Sanchalaks' and other literature and material be made available to him. Judicial notice can be taken of the fact that the demand could not have been more vague than what it is. He also demanded the DGI Report pertaining to the samples taken from those 'Sanchalaks' and as if this was not enough he also asked for the order dated 31st May 2006 of the Food & Civil Supplies Department. The purpose is apparent, he wanted to delay the proceedings at any cost. This was replied by the authorities (DSO) by letter dated 29/ 31st March 2006. The authority informed the petitioner that all relevant material related to the irregularities referred to in the show cause notice, like Panchnama, statement and other related papers were supplied to the petitioner vide pages 1 to 22 along with the notice. It was also informed to the petitioner that if any other papers, unrelated to the defects/ irregularities mentioned in the show cause notice, are required by the petitioner, he can make an application to the Record Branch of the Office of the Collector by depositing requisite fee and obtain the same.