V IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH :: (Special Original Jurisdiction) f/a .r WEDNESDAY, THE NINETEENTH DAY OF FEBRUARYlp ffT® TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE ^ A ' V PRESENT THE HONOURABLE MS JUSTICE B S BHANUMATHI WRIT PETITION NO: 4309 OF 2025 Between: Sri Bade Yadava Rao, S/o late Dillesu, aged about 52 Years, Occ: F.P.Shop Dealer, F.P.Shop No.0134055, R/o Yekuvuru Village Sompeta Mandal, Srikakulam District. ...PETITIONER AND 1. The State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep., by its Principal Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (CS-I) Dept., Secretariat Buildings Velagapudi, Amaravati, Guntur District. 2. The Collector (CS), Srikaulam, Srikakulam District. 3. The Revenue Divisional Officer, Palasa, Srikakulam District. 4. The Tahsildar, Sompeta Mandal, Srikakulam District. ...RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed therewith, the High Court be pleased to issue a WRIT OF MANDAMUS or any other appropriate writ order or direction to declaring the action of the respondents not issuing Essential Commodities to the petitioner herein, for distribution to the card holders attached to shop No.0134055 of Yekuvuru Village, in Sompeta Mandal, Srikakulam District, in spite of subsisting the petitioner's F.P shop authorization, is illegal, arbitrary and in violation of principles of Natural Justice and contrary to the provisions of A.P State Targeted Public Distribution System (Control) Order, 2018, and consequently direct the in may respondent Nos 3'^'^ and 4**^ herein, to supply the Essential Commodities to the petitioner and allow him to distribute the same to the petitioner's F.P shop. lA NO: 1 OF 2025 Petition under Section 151 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased to direct the respondents to supply Essential Commodities to the petitioner herein, and allow him to distribute the same through MDU Operator to the respective card holders under Public Distribution System, attached to in shop No.0134055 of Yekuvuru Village, in Sompeta Mandal, Srikakulam District, pending disposal of the above Writ Petition. Counsel for the Petitioner: SRI M.GNANESWARA RAO Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR CIVIL SUPPLIES The Court made the following: ORDER APHC010082362025 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI (Special Original Jurisdiction) [3311] WEDNESDAY, THE NINETEENTH DAY OF FEBRUARY TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE MS JUSTICE B S BHANUMATHI WRIT PETITION NO: 4309/2025 Between: ...PETITIONER Sri Bade Yadava Rao AND ...RESPONDENT{S) The State Of Andhra Pradesh and Others Counsel for the Petitioner: 1.GNANESWARA RAO MITTIREDDI Counsel for the Respondent(S): 1.GP FOR CIVIL SUPPLIES The Court made the following Order: This writ petition is filed under Article 226 of Constitution of India seeking the following relief: “...may be pleased to issue a Writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ order or direction to declaring the action of the respondents not issuing Essential Commodities to the petitioner herein, for distribution to the card holders attached to shop No.0134055 of Yekuvuru Village, in Sompeta Mandal, Srikakulam District, in spite of subsisting the petitioner’s F.P shop authorization, is illegal, arbitrary and in violation of principles of Natural Justice and W.P.No.4309 of 2025 dt: 19.02.2025 contrary to the provisions of A.P State Targeted Public Distribution System (Control) Order, 2018, and consequently direct the herein, to supply the Essential and 4 respondent Nos 3 Commodities to the petitioner and allow him to distribute the same to the petitioner’s F.P shop and pass such... The case of the petitioner is briefly as follows: 02. The petitioner was appointed as a permanent the dealer of the fair price shop No.0134055 of Yekuvuru Village, Sompeta Mandal, Srikakulam District in the year 2010. Since then, he has been continuing his service without there remark and his authorization was renewed till 31.03.2025. While being any so on 06.02.2025, a team consisting of Sub-Inspector of Police, the Vigilance V.R.O. and R.l along with the and Enforcement Department, Srikakulam Revenue authorities, Sompeta and some other officials visited the petitioner’s fair price shop and conducted inspection and the petitioner produced all the relevant records pertaining to the month of February-2025 to that affect. The after verifying the stock and sales register, found no default as the authorities, stock in the shop and the stock in the records tallied. But, to the best reasons known to the authorities, they are not releasing the stock to the petitioner for the next month due to local political pressure. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner filed the present writ petition. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that after filing of the present writ petition, the show-cause notice dated 12.02.2025, issued by the 3^^ respondent vide Rc.No.113/2025/DT(LR)/, was served on the petitioner. 03. The learned Assistant Government Pleader placed on record the written instructions issued by the 3^'^ respondent vide Rc.No.113/2025/DT(LR)/, dated 12.02.2025 and further submitted the enquiry is pending. Since the variation 04. W.P.No.4309 of 2025 dt: 19.02.2025 % 3 in the stock is negligible and the authorization of the petitioner is neither suspended nor cancelled and the petitioner is entitled to continue to supply the commodities. The variation in the alleged show-cause notice is as follows; 05. As per e- POS stock Ground Balance Opening Balance (Kgs) Differences Issued Name of the Commodity SI.No. Kgs statement (-) 59 Kgs. 1664 1723 6002 7725 Fortified Rice (PDS) 1 Sugar (PDS) (i/2Kg per Packet (-)l Packet 85 86 400 486 2 Fortified Rice (ICDS) (3 Kg per packet) (-) 12 Packets 12 12 3 The following charges are framed in the show-cause notice dated 06. 12.02.2025. Charge No.1; The fair price shop dealer shall display the following information on a notice board at a prominent place in the shop on daily basis. List of cardholders under Priority category, Anthyodaya Anna Yojana category and any other category under different schemes of Being a responsible fair price shop dealer, he Thus, he contravened the the Government, failed to keep the notice board. C1.12(n)(1)of AP STPDS Control Order, 2018. Charge No.2: The fair price shop dealer shall make available stock register by filling electronically generated slips from electronic point of sale/ manual registers for a minimum period of one year in case of non-electronic point of sale fair price shops. Bing a responsible W.P.No.4309 of 2025 dt: 19.02.2025 4 fair price Shop dealer, he failed to keep the stock register. Thus, he contravened the C1.12(p)(1) of AP STPDS Control Order, 2018. Charge No.3: The fair price shop dealer shall make available scheduled commodities physically as per the balance shown electronic point of sale generated print to cross check the variation in stock. Being a responsible fair price shop dealer, he failed to keep the stock. It is established that certain variation found. Thus, he contravened the C1.12(p)(3) of AP STPDS Control Order, 2018. 07. In reply, the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the charges levelled against the petitioner are frivolous and did not call for harsh action. Fortified rice under both schemes is the same kind and if the total stock is seen, the variation is within the permissible limit as per clause 29(a) of the AP STPDS (Control) Order, 2018. The charges can be dealt with in the enquiry, if necessary after submission of explanation by the dealer, but supply of the stock need not be stopped so long as the authorization is in force. 08. In the result, this writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the respondents to supply the commodities to the petitioner as long as the authorization is in force, subject to compliance of other legal formalities. There shall be no order as to costs. 09. Consequently, Miscellaneous Petitions, if any, pending in this writ petition shall stand closed. Sd/- A. VENUGOPALA RAO ASSISTANT REGISTRAR //TRUE COPY// seCTon officer 1. The Principal Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (CS-I) Dept., Secretariat Buildings, Velagapudi, Amaravati, Guntur District. (BY RPAD) To. 4. 2. The Collector (CS), Srikaulam, Srikakulam District. (BY RPAD) The Revenue Divisional Officer, Palasa, Srikakulam District. (BY RPAD) The Tahsildar, Sompeta Mandal, Srikakulam District. (BY RPAD) One CC to Sri Gnaneswara Rao Mittireddi, Advocate [OPUC] Two CCs to GP for Civil Supplies, High Court of Andhra Pradesh. [OUT] Three CD Copies. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. gi HIGH COURT DATED:19/02/2025 ORDER WP.No.4309 of 2025 OE ANDH^ ^ 2 1 FEB 2025 , Current Section ^ iVTC ^ 1 DISPOSING OF THE WRIT PETITION WITHOUT COSTS