SANDEEP MEHTA,J. - (1.) Through this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner Yuvraj Singh has approached this court for assailing the order Annex.6 dated 06.05.2014 passed by the respondent Indian Oil Corporation Limited (for short, 'IOCL'), whereby the petitioner was disqualified from award of LPG distributorship at the location Rani, District Pali in the open category as published vide the advertisement dated 13.03.2010 and so also the consequent order Annex.11 dated 13.08.2016, whereby the said dealership was awarded to the respondent Nirbhay Singh Solanki.
(2.) Mr. S.P. Sharma, learned counsel representing the petitioner, vehemently and fervently urged that the petitioner was ranked topmost in the list of entitled empanelled candidates pursuant to the selection exercise undertaken by the respondent IOCL. The land details provided by the petitioner were found compliant with the requirement of the advertisement and the selection guidelines. The educational certificates of the petitioner were duly verified. The respondents acted in a totally highhanded fashion and entertained a frivolous compliant regarding the land offered by the petitioner and the MBA degree held by him. He urged that the petitioner acquired the MBA degree in a bonafide manner through a Distance Learning Course offered by a University in Uttar Pradesh. As soon as he came to know that he himself had been cheated by the institution, he immediately filed a criminal complaint, wherein prosecution of the person responsible for cheating the petitioner is underway. He, thus, urged that the impugned order Annex.6 dated 06.05.2014, whereby, the petitioner's application for grant of LPG Dealership was dismissed on the purported ground that the land offered for the distributorship having been demarcated after the last date provided in the advertisement for submission of the application form and on the ground of the MBA degree submitted by the petitioner being fake, is absoluetley highhanded, arbitrary and illegal and the consequential order Annex.11 dated 13.08.2016, whereby the distributorship in question was awarded to the respondent Nirbhay Singh Solanki is also grossly illegal and perverse and hence, both the orders deserve to be struck down and the petitioner should be declared entitled for the LPG distributorship in question. In support of his contentions, Mr. Sharma relied upon the Supreme Court judgments in the cases of : (1) Abhishek Kumar v. The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Ors. [(2016) 4 SCALE 27], (2) Krishna Devi v. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. and Anr. [AIR 2016 SC 2392], (3) Sunita Kumar v. Rajesh Kumar Tiwary [AIR 2015 SC 254] and this court's judgments in the cases of : (4) Smt. Rachna Dinesh v. The State of Rajasthan and Ors. [S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 11569/2010 decided on 19.04.2012], (5) Narendra v. Indian Oil Corporation and Ors. [2012 (3) CDR 1249 (Raj.)].
(3.) Per contra, Mr. Om Mehta, learned counsel representing the respondent IOCL, and Mr. Sajjan Singh, learned counsel representing the private respondent, have vehemently and fervently opposed the submissions advanced by Mr. Sharma. They urged that the MBA degree submitted by the petitioner alongwith the application was fake as the petitioner admittedly never appeared for the MBA examination. They drew the court's attention to the criminal complaint submitted by the petitioner in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate No. 7 and urged that it is clearly borne out from a bare perusal of the complaint, that the petitioner acquired the MBA degree fraudulently without ever appearing in any examination. They, thus, urged that as the degree submitted by the petitioner was fake, his candidature for the questioned dealership was rightly rejected in reference to the declaration clause No. 16 of the advertisement dated 13.03.2010, which reads as below:- "16. Declaration by the applicant : I am aware that inter se suitability of candidates will be decided by evaluation of candidates on the document based information and interaction (interview). Evaluation on document based information will be done based on the information given by me/us in this application. On verification by the Oil Company if it is found that the information given by me/us is incorrect/false/misrepresented then my/our candidature will stand cancelled and I/We will be declared ineligible for LPG Distributorship. I also confirm that I am in possession of the supporting documents in original for the information given by me in this application and if selected failure to present these documents in original will result in cancellation of selection due to submission of false/unsupported information in this application. I am fully aware that if I am unable to provide duly approved LPG Godown by the Office of Chief Controller of Explosives (PESO) on the land/godown indicated in the application and or showroom as per the Oil Company's standard layout on the land/shop indicated in the application herein above after selection, then the allotment of distributorship made to me will automatically stand cancelled. I am fully aware that I will be appointed as LPG distributor if I am employed, I shall have to resign from the service and produce proof of acceptance of my resignation from my employer before issuance of Letter of Appointment. That, if selected, I undertake that will be depositing an interest free Security deposit as per the policy of the Corporation (Not applicable for distributorship reserved for SC/ST category) I have read the conditions applicable for the LPG distributorship mentioned in the advertisement and confirm that I fulfil the eligibility criteria for the LPG distributorship I have applied for in this application.";