IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH 102 CWP-8360-2025 (O&M) Date of Decision : July 07, 2026 TARSEM -PETITIONER V/S BHARAT PETROLEUM CORPORATION LIMITED AND ANOTHER -RESPONDENTS CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KULDEEP TIWARI Present: Mr. Prince Goyal, Advocate (Legal Aid Counsel) for the petitioner. Mr. Arnav Sharma, Advocate, for Mr. Raman Sharma, Advocate for the respondents. Mr. Munish Kumar Garg, Advocate, and Ms. Bhawna Thakur, Advocate, and Mr. Yuwan Singla, Advocate for the proposed respondent No.3. *** KULDEEP TIWARI, J. (ORAL) 1. Through the instant writ petition, the petitioner impugns the communications dated 17.02.2024 (Annexure P-7) and 20.04.2024 (Annexure P-10), whereby the application submitted by the petitioner for allotment of a Retail Outlet Dealership has been rejected by the respondent- Company. 2. The rejection of the petitioner’s candidature is founded upon one of the eligibility conditions prescribed under the Dealership Selection Guidelines in vogue. The relevant condition is reproduced hereinbelow:- “a) The land should be available with the applicant as on the date of application and should have minimum lease of 19 years and 11 DEVINDER YADAV 2026.07.08 14:49 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order/judgment CWP-8360-2025 (O&M) 2 months (as advertised by respective oil company) from the date or after the date of advertisement but not later than the date of application. If the offered land is on Long-term lease and there are multiple owners, then lease deed should be executed by all co- owners of the offered plot. In case, lease deed is not executed by all co-owners, such lease deed shall be treated as invalid.” 3. In terms of the condition (supra), the lease deed in respect of the offered land submitted by the petitioner was required to be executed by all the co-owners of the said land. However, the said lease deed was executed only by one co-owner out of the total 99 co-owners reflected in the Jamabandi for the year 2021-2022. Consequently, the respondent-Company treated the lease deed as invalid and rejected the petitioner’s application for Retail Outlet Dealership. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that, at this stage, he restricts the relief sought in the writ petition to the extent of issuance of directions to the respondent-Company to decide the petitioner’s representation (Annexure P-11), which has been pending consideration before the Grievance Redressal System since 29.05.2024, within a time- bound period. 5. Learned counsel appearing for the respondents submits that he has no objection to the issuance of directions to the competent respondent/ authority to decide the petitioner’s representation within a time-bound period. 6. In view of the above, and without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case or the petitioner’s claim, the instant writ petition is disposed of with directions to the competent respondent/authority to take a final decision on the petitioner’s representation (Annexure P-11) within six DEVINDER YADAV 2026.07.08 14:49 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order/judgment CWP-8360-2025 (O&M) 3 weeks from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. Further, in the event the authority is inclined to reject the claim of the petitioner, the petitioner shall be afforded an opportunity of personal hearing before such decision is taken. 7. Liberty is also reserved to the petitioner to seek revival of the instant writ petition in the event the authority concerned fails to comply with the directions issued hereinabove. 8. Pending application also stands disposed of accordingly. (KULDEEP TIWARI) July 07, 2026 JUDGE devinder Whether speaking/reasoned : Yes/No Whether Reportable : Yes/No DEVINDER YADAV 2026.07.08 14:49 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this order/judgment