Ashis Kumar Chakraborty, J. - (1.) The petitioner has filed this writ petition praying for a writ of mandamus for setting aside the letter dated September 10, 2018 issued by the respondent no. 3, the Deputy General Manager of Indian Oil Corporation, thereby rejecting his candidature as the distributor of Liquidified Petroleum Gas (LPG) at Palsunda, District Nadia, in the State of West Bengal (hereinafter referred to as "the said area").
(2.) The facts leading up to the filing of this writ petition may be shortly stated. On August 31, 2017 the respondent no. 2, Indian Oil Corporation issued an advertisement inviting applications for appointment of LPG distributors at various places in the State of West Bengal including the said area. The last date for submission of an application by any interested person was October 03, 2017 but by a subsequent corrigendum the last date was extended till October 18,2017. As per the Brochure on Unified Guidelines for Selection of LPG Distributor (hereinafter referred to as "the said brochure"), in order to be eligible to apply for appointment as the distributor of LPG, the applicant must either be the owner or the lessee of the land on which the godown/showroom is to be constructed. In case, the applicant is the lessee of the land there must be a registered lease deed in favour of the applicant having minimum 15 years of valid lease period commencing on and from the date of the advertisement up to the last date of submission of the application. Even an applicant having as registered lease deed on any date prior to the advertisement would be eligible to apply for being selected as the LPG distributor provided, the lease in respect of the land is valid for a minimum period of 15 years from the date of the advertisement. On October 14, 2017 the petitioner submitted the application to the respondent no.2 oil company for appointment of LPG distributor of the said area. According to the petitioner, the lease in respect of the land offered by him for construction of the godown/showroom of LPG commenced from September 25, 2017 on which date the lease deed was presented before the registering authority for registration. By a letter dated June 13, 2018 the respondent no. 3 informed the petitioner that he has been declared as the successful candidate as the LPG distributor of the said area and requested the petitioner to deposit Rs. 40,000/- as also to submit various documents. The petitioner was further informed that the field verification of the land will be carried out by the designated officers of the respondent no. 2 when the information submitted by the petitioner in his application form shall be verified with the original documents. As such, the petitioner was requested to produce all the original documents including the land documents relating the godown/showroom. Thereafter, on June 18, 2018 the petitioner deposited a demand draft of Rs. 40,000/- and also submitted the documents mentioned in the said letter dated June 13, 2018 to the respondent no. 3. On July 15, 2018 the respondent no. 3 carried the field verification of the plots of land offered by the petitioner to construct the godown/showroom. A copy of the field verification report dated July 15, 2018 was also made over to the petitioner. However, by a letter dated September 10, 2018 the respondent no. 3 informed the petitioner that at the time of field verification report it was found that the date of registration of the deed for the godown land is recorded as November 3, 2017 which is after the last date for submission of the application and, as such, the petitioner's candidature is rejected and the amount of Rs. 40,000/- deposited with the respondent no. 2 stands forfeited in terms of the conditions of the advertisement.
(3.) By a letter dated September 10, 2018 the petitioner through his advocate informed the respondent no. 3 that in fact the lease deed in respect of the land in question was entered into by Abdul Kasem, as the lessor and the petitioner, as the lessee on September 25, 2018 and on the same date the said lease deed was presented before the office of A.D.S.R., Nadia for registration, but due to their own defaults the registering authority registered the said deed lease only on November 6, 2017. It was alleged that the said lease deed expressly mentioned that the lease in respect of the said land in question commenced on September 25, 2017, that is, before the last date of submission of the application of the petitioner and the same is valid for 16 years. The petitioner claimed that the rejection of his candidature by the respondent no. 3 was without any lawful reason. Since the said letter dated September 20, 2018 did not evoke any response from the respondent no.3, the petitioner has filed this writ petition challenging the said letter dated September 10, 2018 issued by the respondent no. 3.;