Bombay high court slams Girish Bapat for restoring PDS shop licence

  • | Saturday | 19th January, 2019

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court recently set aside the order of Maharashtra civil supplies minister Girish Bapat to restore the licence of a fair price shop in Beed district. Mane went in appeal to Bapat, who set aside the licence revocation as well as the order of the deputy commissioner. The tehsildar concerned had then reported the matter to the DSO.On June 8, 2016, the DSO cancelled the licence of the fair price shop. The licence had been cancelled by the district supply officer (DSO) in November 2015.The revocation of the licence was subsequently upheld by the deputy commissioner (civil supplies), Aurangabad. After verifying the details, the deputy commissioner upheld the DSO’s order on August 4, 2017.

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court recently set aside the order of Maharashtra civil supplies minister Girish Bapat to restore the licence of a fair price shop in Beed district. The licence had been cancelled by the district supply officer (DSO) in November 2015.The revocation of the licence was subsequently upheld by the deputy commissioner (civil supplies), Aurangabad. However, on April 17 last year, Bapat quashed and set aside both the licence cancellation by the DSO as well as the confirmation given by the deputy commissioner.The one-man bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge observed, “I find that the minister was over-indulgent in setting aside the order of the DSO and especially that of the deputy commissioner (civil supplies), who has delivered a well-reasoned order after considering the record threadbare. The learned minister seems to have lost sight of the fact that his jurisdiction is akin to revision jurisdiction. He cannot be over-indulgent in setting aside a wellreasoned order, more so in the backdrop of the allegation that the fair price shop operator is politically well-connected.”Justice Ghuge also noted that this was the third case before the court wherein such “unsustainable orders” had been passed by the same minister. “The earlier cases were (i) Writ petition no. 2701 of 2015 (Rajendra Devidas Kate vs State of Maharashtra and others) and (ii) Writ petition no. 10,343 of 2017 (Digambar Karbhari Huse vs State of Maharashtra and others) in which this court has passed orders on August 23, 2017,” he said.Villagers had levelled a number of complaints of irregularities by Vibhishan Mane, the fair price shop owner in Murambi village in Ambajogai taluka of Beed, in the distribution of ration items and other goods. The complainants had alleged that Mane was indulging in unfair practices such as making entries against the names of deceased persons. The tehsildar concerned had then reported the matter to the DSO.On June 8, 2016, the DSO cancelled the licence of the fair price shop. Mane then approached the deputy commissioner (civil supplies) against the DSO’s order. After verifying the details, the deputy commissioner upheld the DSO’s order on August 4, 2017. Mane went in appeal to Bapat, who set aside the licence revocation as well as the order of the deputy commissioner.

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