Hyderabad High Court dismisses fair price dealers’ plea

HYDERABAD:Finding fault with the petitioner fair price shop dealers in approaching the High Court as if they were not having efficacious alternative remedy to ventilate their grievances, Justice T Sunil Chowdary of the Hyderabad High Court recently dismissed petitions filed by some dealers as not maintainable on the ground that they approached the court without availing the alternative statutory remedy for their grievances.

The judge made it clear that Clause 20(2) of the Andhra Pradesh state public distribution system control order, 2008, provides an opportunity to the dealers concerned for filing an appeal before the joint collector against the order passed by the revenue divisional officer.The judge was dismissing the petitions filed by N Munirangadu and others from Anantapur district, challenging the order of cancelling the authorization of the dealers for violation of provisions of the AP state public distribution system control order, 2008.

In Jan 2016, the regional vigilance and enforcement officials of Anantapur division raided the shops of the petitioner FPS dealers and noticed certain irregularities which included variation in stocks pertaining to rice, sugar, kerosene which was much more than permissible limits. Basing on the report submitted by the concerned Tahsildar, the Anantapur RDO issued orders of cancelling the authorization of the dealers. Aggrieved with the same, the dealers directly approached the High Court  for relief.

The government counsel  for civil supplies pointed out that the petitioners have straight-away approached the High Court without availing the statutory remedy, and therefore petitions were liable to be dismissed. In fact, the RDO concerned conducted disciplinary proceedings against the petitioners, after affording reasonable opportunity to them, he noted. After hearing the case and perusing the material on record, Justice Chowdary dismissed the petitions as not maintainable saying that they have approached the Court without exhausting the remedy as provided under Control Order, 2008.