Fakir Roy vs The State of Bihar, The District Magistrate, The District Supply Officer and The Block Supply Officer

Jayanandan Singh, J.—Petitioner has filed this writ application for a direction to the respondents to issue P.D.S. dealership licence to him. His case is that he is a member of the PACS and in terms of the government letter, contained in memo no. 5738 dated 23.06.2011, licence has to be given to the PACS, NGO, cooperative society of retired army or cooperative society of ladies etc. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that since the petitioner is a member of PACS, his application should be considered by the respondents. He submits that for this purpose, petitioner has filed several representations.

Learned counsel for the respondents submits that the said letter of the Government dated 23.06.2011 had introduced amendment in the original government letter dated 20.02.2007 according to which licence has to be issued in favour of the PACS and other groups and not in favour of the individual members of the PACS. He has referred to amended paragraph 2.4 in the original letter dated 20.02.2007 in this regard.

After going through the said paragraph, this Court finds the submission of learned counsel for the respondents as correct.

In the circumstances, in terms of the government letter, the individual case of the petitioner for issue of licence cannot be considered. However, respondents have to consider the case of the PACS itself for issue of licence in terms of he said provision, in case the PACS itself has submitted any application for licence, failing which the same has to be issued in favour of other category of eligible organizations mentioned in the said paragraph 2.4. The writ application is accordingly disposed of with a direction to the respondents to consider issue of PDS dealership licence to eligible societies or self-help groups as mentioned in the said amended paragraph 2.4 of letter dated 20.02.2007 at an early date and issue the same if any of them have applied for licence.