- (1.) In Writ Petition No.13319 of 2014, the matter relates to allotment of a fair price shop in Gram Panchayat Saraiya Mishra, Block Kaptanganj, District Basti. Initially the fair price shop licence was given to Ram Nayan son of Birju belonging to O.B.C. category. In due course of time, Ram Nayan's wife became the Pradhan of the village and, therefore, incurred a disability for running a fair price shop as per the Government Order. The Sub Divisional Magistrate, accordingly, issued an order dated 15.1.2011 cancelling the shop allotted in favour of Ram Nayan. The appeal filed by Sri Ram Nayan was dismissed by an order dated 1.2.2011. Thereafter, the Block Development Officer initiated proceedings for allotment of the shop. The Gram Panchayat passed a resolution dated 17.10.2013 recommending the name of the petitioner, Surendra Kumar, for allotment of the shop. The petitioner also belonged to the OBC category. The proposal of the Gram Panchayat was rejected by the Sub Divisional Magistrate by the impugned order dated 6.2.2014, on the ground, that back log quota of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes are required to be filled up and, therefore, the Gram Panchayat should sent a proposal of a name belonging to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribes category. The petitioner, being aggrieved by the said order, has filed the present writ petition.
(2.) During the pendency of the writ petition the District Level Committee held a meeting holding that after considering the horizontal reservation it was found that 76 vacant shops were required to be filled up by Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes category and the balance 37 shops were required to be filled by candidates belonging from General Category. The District Level Committee identified the shop in question through a lottery system as belonging to a General Category and, therefore, issued an advertisement dated 2.2.2015 inviting applications to fill up the shop from a General Category candidate. The petitioner, accordingly, filed an amendment application, which was allowed and also prayed for the quashing of the order dated 27.1.2015 passed by the District Level Committee as well as the advertisement dated 2.2.2015.
(3.) The contention of the petitioner, in short, is that the earlier shop was held by an O.B.C. and since the petitioner is an O.B.C., the shop can only be given to an O.B.C. and that the subsequent decision of the District Level Committee to allocate the shop to a general category candidate was wholly illegal in violation of paragraph 4(ii) of the Government Order 17.8.2002. According to the petitioner, paragraph 4(ii) of the Government Order dated 17.8.2002 indicates that the shop would be allotted in the same category as that of the Pradhan.;