- (1.) THE petitioner herein being the authorized dealer of the 1st respondent-Indian Oil Corporation Limited and possessing a Form-B licence under the provisions of the A. P. Petroleum Products Licence and Regulation of supply Order,1980 has been running a retail outlet at Srikakulam town. This writ petition is filed seeking a declaration that the order dated. 24. 11. 2003 passed by the 1st respondent-corporation suspending the sales and supplies of all products by the petitioner for a period of 30 days w. e. f. 27-11-2003 to 26-12-2003 apart from imposing a fine of Rs. 20,000/- on the ground of alleged adulteration of petroleum products at the petitioner's retail outlet as arbitrary and illegal.
(2.) THE facts, in brief, are as under:-On 17-09-2003 the petitioner's outlet was supplied 12000 liters of motor spirit by the 1st respondent-Corporation from Visakha Terminal through a tanker covered by invoice No. 756670 with density 0. 7216. Before unloading the stock, necessary density test was conducted by the petitioner and the density was found as 0. 7219 and the same was recorded in the density register maintained by the petitioner. Thereafter the stock was unloaded into the underground tank and the density of the stock in the underground was found to be 0. 7222 and the same was also recorded in the density register.
(3.) AT about 7. 30 P. M on 17-09-2003 the Anti Adulteration Cell Officer, southern Region, Chennai inspected the petitioner's outlet and took samples of ms and HSD after preparing an inspection report. Thereafter by letter dated. 11-10-2003 while enclosing the test reports of the samples drawn from the petitioner's retail outlet, the 1st respondent called upon the petitioner to offer its explanation within seven days as to why the RON Test carried out on MS sample did not meet the specifications. The test reports enclosed revealed that though the density of the samples met the specifications, the Research Octane Number (RON) was found to be 84. 6 as against the required minimum of 89. On the same day i. e. , 11-10-2003 the Sales Officer (Retail) of IOC visited the petitioner's retail outlet and conducted another inspection. Though no irregularity was found, the Sales Officer (Retail) by letter dated. 11. 10. 2003 directed stoppage of sales of MS and HSD in the petitioner's outlet. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner filed W. P. No. 21571 of 2003. The said writ petition was allowed by this Court by order dated. 15. 10. 2003 and the impugned order dated. 11-10-2003 was set aside.;