- (1.) The Respondents 1 to 3 proposed to appoint a dealer for a retail outlet at Garledinne Village in Anantapur District. The petitioner made an application for dealership along with others in response to a notification dated 19-12-2003 published in "The Hindu" daily newspaper. He belongs to a Scheduled Tribe. He is a Bachelor in Technology in EEE Group and also a diploma holder in "C" and "C++" languages. He also gained some experience as a Manager at Sri Lakshmi Narayana Service Station from 1-1-2003 to 1-11-2003. He was called for the interview along with other applicants on 7-6-2004. He fared well in the interview and produced all relevant documents as per the notification. The result was displayed in the Notice Board on the same day showing him at S.No.2, and the fourth respondent at S.No.l. The petitioner contends that he is the highly qualified among all the 29 candidates who attended the interview and has the additional qualification of proficiency in the languages of Computer Science whereas the fourth respondent is only a Graduate. He is entitled for certain benefits by virtue of his belonging to Scheduled Tribe and he is financially sound to offer security. The fourth respondent is a non-professional without any experience and she is the wife of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Utnoor in Adilabad District. Though he is better qualified than the fourth respondent, the selection was not made in a just and fair manner. The petitioner therefore approached this Court through this writ petition seeking to declare that the action of Respondents 1 to 3 in proposing to appoint the fourth respondent as a Retail Outlet Dealer at Garledinne location, Anantapur District as illegal, unjust, arbitrary, biased and violative of the principles of natural justice and to set aside the same.
(2.) The Respondents 1 to 3 filed a counter-affidavit resisting the writ petition and the averments made in the counter-affidavit are briefly as follows:
(3.) The selection for the dealership was made by -a duly constituted Selection Committee as per the prescribed norms and guidelines. The petitioner approached this Court wholly on imaginary and illusory grounds. The members of the Selection Committee are Senior Officers of the Oil Corporation. The selection was made strictly as per the norms and procedure prescribed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. The fourth respondent was empanelled by the Selection Committee as the most meritorious candidate and the petitioner was placed at the second position on an objective assessment made by the members of the Selection Committee. The assessment was made by the members of the Selection Committee under various heads viz., capability to arrange finance, educational qualifications, capability of generating business, business ability/acumen, age, experience, and personality. The petitioner questioning the selection by treating the writ petition as an appeal cannot be permitted. The assessment made by the Selection Committee as per the norms cannot be re-evaluated in this writ petition. After the empanelment of the candidates, the Corporation is required to undertake a field investigation to verify the antecedents and claims of the selected candidate. This process consumes sometime and only thereafter a Letter of Intent will be issued to the selected candidate. The writ petition is liable to be dismissed as devoid of merits.;