16.09.2026 ct no. 10 Sl.02 AGM WPA 13834 of 2024 IA No : CAN 1 of 2024 CAN 2 of 2024 M/s. Sonai Food Marketing Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. -Versus- State of West Bengal & Ors. Mr. Ram Anand Agarwala. Ms. Nibedita Pal. Mr. Ananda Gopal Mukherjee. Ms. Sonam Ray. …for the petitioners. Mr. Ram Chandra Agarwal. Ms. Sulagna Sarkar. … for the State of West Bengal. 1. This is a third round of litigation of the petitioners before this Court. 2. Petitioners applied for M.R. Distributorship licence under the authority concerned. Before the second round of litigation this Court in several writ petitions has directed the authority concerned to consider the representations. Lastly in WPA No. 10846 of 2021 this Court has directed the concerned authority to dispose of the application of the petitioner for granting M.R. Distributorship licence at the concerned block. After hearing the parties the concerned authority has passed the reasoned order on 9th May, 2024. 3. The operative portion of the said order is as follows:- “As per eligibility criterion point no. 07 of the vacancy Notification No. 88/DC/FS/PRL Dated 16.01.2019 and 90/DC/FS/PRL/dated 16.01.2019 for grant of M.R. Distributorship license, the applicant (in case of individual or group of individual) should not possess any FPS Dealership/Distributorship license on PDS either in his/her/their name or in the name of any member of his/her/their family but M/s Sonai Food Marketing Private Limited (the present applicant for MR Distributorship 2 at Joypur and Raghunathpur-II block under District Purulia) the petitioner holds an M.R. Distributorship license at Surekaina Mouza- Kanshra, PS& Block-Jamalpur Dist- Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal as per the information received from Joint Director (License), Directorate of DDP&S vide his office Memo No. 519/FMR/13L-16/14 (Part) dated 27.02.2024. This makes his candidature ineligible and considered as disqualification for engagement as an MR Distributor under Joypur and Raghunathpur-II blocks in the district of Purulia.” 4. Mr. Agarwala, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners submits that the observation of the concerned District Controller, Food and Supply is dehors to the law declare by this Court. He submits that the same issue was raised before this Court in Writ Petition No. WPA 2836 of 2021. In the said writ petition the petitioners therein have challenged the similar vacancy notification for different blocks, challenging the constitutional validity of Clause no. 1,2, 7 and 8 of the said notification. The Clause no. 7 of the notification which was under challenge before this Court in WPA No. 2836 of 2021 is identical to the Clause no. 7 of the impugned notification being notification No. 88/DC/FS/PRL and 90/DC/FS/PRL both dated 16.01.20219. 5. Mr. Agarwala submits that when this Court has declared a clause of notification to be ultra vires and which was struck down, the District Controller/concerned authority is legally not empowered to dispose of any representation by citing the said Clause in the notification again. He further submits that the authority has acted illegally and only to show the grudge against the present petitioner has passed the impugned order denying the M.R. Distributorship in favour of the present petitioners. 3 6. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the State authority submits that the impugned Clause no. 7 of the notifications dated 16th January, 2019 were not challenged before this Court. 7. He further submits that the instant writ petition is not at all maintainable. He again submits that the petitioner has applied for distributorship licenses knowing the clauses of the notifications now they cannot challenge one clause of such notifications. 8. Learned counsel for the State authority submits that petitioner is legally stopped to challenge the said clause after applying the licence on the basis of such advertisement. 9. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and also considering the materials on record, it appears to me that the present petitioner is roaming before this court thrice for getting licence, reasons thereof he was debarred by the authority concerned for different grounds. On the other litigations this Court has directed the authority concerned to allow the petitioner to file application for getting licence. All the time the concerned authority is denying the distributorship licence in favour of the petitioner on several pretext. Now the concerned District Controller, Food and Supply by citing the eligible criteria in clause 7 of the impugned notifications is of view that the petitioner is holding M.R. Distributorship licence thus his candidature cannot be considered for giving distributorship licences. 10. I make it clear that when a clause of notification has been declared before this Court to be ultra vires, and State authority has complied with the same, the order passed by this Court becomes binding upon the State authority. The State authority now and again cannot deny the M.R. Distributorship licence of the petitioner on 4 the said eligible criteria which was already declared as ultra vires in several writ petitions. 11. I can understand that this Court has declared a Clause of a vacancy notification to be ultra vires which is in respect of separate location but it appears that, the clause which was declared to be ultra vires is identical to the clause of impugned notification vide Memo No. 88/DC/FS/PRL and 90//DC/FS/PRL both dated 16.01.2019. 12. Under the above observation the impugned letter/communication dated 9th May, 2024 is hereby quashed. 13. Petitioner is roaming around before the door of this Court for quite long time thus I consider it necessary to issue a direction upon the concerned authority to provide M.R. Distributorship licences in favour of the petitioner if he is otherwise eligible according to law within eight weeks from the date of communication of this order. 14. Under the above observation, this writ petition being WPA 13834 of 2024 along with connected applications are disposed of. 15. Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, of applied for, be supplied to the parties after observing all legal formalities. (Smita Das De, J.)