Bhagwan Giri vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others

Ravindra Maithani, J

The challenge in this petition is made to order dated 18.04.2023, by which the agreement of the petitioner for Fair Price Shop in village Naugwanath, Tehsil Khatima, District Udham Singh Nagar, has been suspended. The petitioner also seeks directions that the respondent-authorities may be directed not to cancel the license given in his favour for running fair price shop in the village.

Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.

Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner runs a fair price shop in the village. On 11.04.2022, an inspection was made and based on it, without affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, the agreement has been suspended.

Learned Chief Standing Counsel would submit that during inspection, various irregularities were detected, which were noticed by the officer conduction the inspection. By the impugned order, merely, the agreement has been suspended. Now, the enquiry is already underway. The petitioner has already been given notices to submit his reply. He would submit that there is no irregularity while suspending the fair price shop agreement of the petitioner.

The impugned order reveals that the petitioner was not found in the shop at the time of the inspection. There were a few irregularities that have been noticed. By the impugned order, merely, the agreement has been suspended. The enquiry, it is stated, is already underway and the petitioner has been served with the notices.

Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner has already replied to the notices.

Prior to suspension, it is not required that any show cause notice, as such, is given to the petitioner. In fact, the impugned order reveals that during enquiry, the petitioner was called. He did reach, but he could not explain about the irregularities. Mere suspension, under those circumstances, may not be termed as bad in the eyes of law. The enquiry is already underway, as stated.

In view of the foregoing discussion, this Court does not see any reason to make any interference at this stage. Accordingly, the writ petition deserves to be dismissed at the stage of admission itself.

The petition is dismissed in limine.