SANJEEV PRAKASH SHARMA - (1.) The petitioners have preferred this writ petition assailing the action of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as 'the HPCL') issuing a Letter of Intent (in short, 'the LOI') to respondent No.4, a candidate from SC category, for setting up a retail outlet of petrol/diesel on the land bearing Khasra No.114/2/1 at Village Pahadi, Tehsil Newai which belongs to them and had been leased out to the HPCL. It is claimed by the petitioners that if at all the respondents had to allot the retail outlet to some other person, it should have been allotted to petitioner No.3, who is the co-owner of the land falling in physically handicapped woman category belonging to OBC.
(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the respondent- HPCL in the first stage had issued an advertisement on 01.06.2001 inviting applications from the land owners for offering the land on lease or one time purchase for the purpose of establishment of retail outlet at various districts in Rajasthan. The petitioners had offered their land and a lease agreement had been entered into between the HPCL and the petitioners which provided that the land shall be used for the purpose of establishment of petrol pump/retail outlet and there was a condition also in the said lease agreement that the lessee shall be at liberty to license, or sublet or underlet or part with possession of the demised premises or any part thereof for use for all or any of the purposes aforesaid, without the consent or concurrence of the lessor. The agreement was entered into on 27.05.2002. In pursuance of the said agreement, the land was handed over to the HPCL which started their own retail outlet and petrol pump on Company-Owned- Company-Operated (COCO) basis.
(3.) The dispute started only when the advertisement was issued again by the HPCL on 02.12.2005 mentioning retail outlets at various places to be allotted category-wise in Udaipur region and Jaipur region. In the area which falls under Udaipur region, as many as 158 retail outlets were advertised. Although the specific retail outlet at Village Pahadi in Newai, District Tonk was not mentioned but it was mentioned at Item No.44 about a retail outlet at Newai in District Tonk, which was reserved for SC category and also mentioned that it shall be developed by the company under the company ownership. From the perusal of the advertisement, it is also seen that there were other places which had been categorised for physically handicapped woman, for SC woman and other categories too.;