Swapan Mondal vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors.

Affidavit-of-service filed in Court today be kept on record.

The petitioner submits in the present writ petition that a license on compassionate ground was issued in favour of the petitioner by the respondent no. 5 on 19.1.2022.

It is submitted that though the petitioner was allowed to distribute the essential commodities from the month of April 2022 but no commodities were distributed to him by his distributor, namely, M/s. Matilal Sha for the said month. However, the office of the respondent no. 5 had uploaded certain commodities in the e-pos machine in the latter part of April 2022. A Similar situation occurred in July 2022, when the distributor’s office failed to allot certain categories of essential commodities. Though the ration cards have been tagged with the petitioner’s dealership, no commodities were allotted to the petitioner to enable him to discharge his distribution obligations. Being aggrieved thereby, the petitioner made various representations to the authority concerned for issuance of balance commodities to enable him to run the Fair Price Shop seamlessly in the interest of the public at large.

On 15.6.2026 the petitioner submitted a representation styled as ‘Demand for justice’ before respondent no. 3 ventilating his grievance regarding non realization of food grains for the months of April 2022 and July 2022, which is still pending consideration.

Learned counsel appearing for the State respondents vehemently opposes the contention of the petitioner and submits that owing to stock of food grains lying in the e-pos machine, the allotted food grains could not be delivered to him.

Having heard the parties and upon perusing the records made available, this Court finds that prima facie has been made out by the petitioner warranting interference at this stage. To balance the equities and for the ends of justice, this court directs the respondent no. 3 to consider the representation dated 15.6.2026 within a period of four weeks from the date of communication of this order and shall pass a reasoned and speaking order in accordance with law after affording an opportunity of personal hearing to the petitioner, and to the distributor Matilal Sha, and to communicate such decision within a week from date.

With the above observations and directions, WPA 17124 of 2026 is disposed of without going into the merits of the case.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order be supplied to the parties, if applied for, as early as possible.