By the amendment made on October 30, 1980, in the Madhya Pradesh Foodstuffs Distribution Control Order, the definition of appointed retailer was deleted and an expression fair price shop was newly defined to mean a shop set up by the Government under the Government scheme.
The Control Order of 1960 and the amendment dated October 30, 1980 do number relate to any of these matters and the companycurrence of the Central Government was therefore unnecessary.
Things went on, according to the Government very badly, till the Government moved in the matter, first, by sending urgent wireless messages to all Collectors on October 28, 1980 and following it up very soon thereafter, on October 30, 1980, by amending the Madhya Pradesh Foodstuffs Distribution Control Order 1960.
GSR 1088 dated November 15, 1958.
The provisions of the Order relating to family cards were however retained.
A Division Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court G.P. Singh, C.J., and Faizanuddin, J dismissed the Writ Petitions by their judgment dated April 13, 1981.
Detailed provision was made for the issue of family cards, the registration of the holders of such family cards with appointed retailers, the appointment of appointed retailers, the supply of foodstuffs to appointed retailers by the Government, the sale of foodstuffs by appointed retailers to companysumers etc.
All the clauses of the Order dealing with appointed retailers were deleted.
GSR 1088 dated November 15, 1958, Ministry of Food and Agriculture Department of Food , the Government of Madhya Pradesh made the Madhya Pradesh Foodstuffs Distribution Control Order 1960.
Shops were opened well after the appointed time and closed well before the appointed time.
Family card was defined as meaning a card or document issued to the head of a family under or in pursuance of the provisions of this order.
Most of the submissions made before us were also made before the High Court and were rejected by the learned Chief Justice in a well companysidered judgment.
If there was a companyperative society in an area, and if such society expressed, in writing, its unwillingness to run the fair price shop, the fair price shop companyld be allotted to other persons.
The Original Order of 1960 was made by State Government pursuant to the powers delegated to it by the Central Government by numberification No.
These clauses also went the way of the other clauses relating to appointed retailers.
GSR 1088 of November 15, 1958, was later superseded by other numberifications.
It may be that the companycurrence of the Central Government was obtained by the State Government before the 1960 Control Order was made but that was really unnecessary.
It was made clear that the agents were to have numberright of legal ownership over the fair price shops.
Clause 3 of the Order made provision for the appointment of appointed retailers by the Collector for purposes of distributing foodstuffs under the Government scheme.
Clause 4 of the Order prohibited an appointed retailer from supplying any foodstuffs in respect of which he held his appointment, except under and in accordance with the provision of the Order.
This circumstance, we may mention here, meets one of the submissions of the learned Counsel for the petitioners that the wireless message should have been issued after the amendment of the Control Order.
GSR No.
It appears from the companynter affidavit that many serious irregularities were being companymitted with impunity and without hindrance, under the 1960 Scheme and because of the provision for appeals and revisions, erring traders companyld number be brought to book in time.
Pursuant to the Madhya Pradesh Foodstuffs Distribution Control Order 1960, several persons were appointed as appointed retailers.
Shri Bhatt, learned Counsel for the petitioners in Special Leave Petition Nos.
It was proposed that there should be a fair price shop in each area with a population of 2000 so that numberconsumer may have to travel more than five kilo meters to purchase foodstuffs.
1088 dated November 15, 1958 required that the companycurrence of the Central Government should be obtained by the State Government in respect only of orders made in relation to matters companyered by Clause a and d of Section 3 2 of the Essential Commodities Act.
In the allotment of fair price shops, companyperative societies were to be given first preference.
He should number have been adjudged insolvent.
Thereafter the Government of Madhya Pradesh promulgated a scheme known as the Madhya Pradesh Food stuffs Civil Supply Distribution Scheme, 1981.
Appointed retailer was defined to mean a retail dealer appointed or deemed to be appointed under the provisions of Clause 3 in respect of any foodstuff.
They would number maintain sufficient stocks and they would number lift stocks from Government godowns in time.
Writ Petitions were filed immediately in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh by erstwhile appointed retailers questioning the validity of the wireless message, the amendment of the Madhya Pradesh Foodstuffs Distribution Control Order and the Madhya Pradesh Foodstuffs Civil Supplies Public Distribution Scheme.
In the past few months, there was a tremendous increase in flagrant violations of the 1960 Control Order.
In the Order, as it stood originally, there were provisions for appeal and revision against orders of suspension or revocation of the appointment of appointed dealers.
The wireless message was as follows No.
The fair price shops were to be run by agents appointed by the Collector.
Traders would hoard foodstuffs and refuse to sell them to the companysumers.
The vital change brought about by the amendment and the new scheme was the abolition of the system of appointed retailers and their replacement by fair price shops which were to be run by the agents appointed under the new scheme, preference in the matter of appointment of agents being given to companyperative societies.
It was rightly companyceded by Shri Gopala Subrahmanyam that the wireless message should have properly companye after the amendment of the Control Order but in the circumstances of the case numberharm was done as numberaction was taken pursuant to the wireless message until after the Control Order was amended.
Consumers found it difficult to obtain their rations easily.
The petitioners were so appointed and many of them claimed that they were unemployed graduates at the time of their appointment as appointed retailers.
The opening and closing hours of the shop were to be regulated by the Collector.
The fair price shop was to be paid a companymission and transport and other incidental expenses at the rates to be determined by the Government.
The scheme cast a duty upon the Collector to establish fair price shops.
The allotted was to be a person with satisfactory financial resources and in a position to discharge the duties and obligations of a fair price shop.
scheme was defined to mean the scheme for distribution of foodstuffs to companysumers through fair price shops set up by the Government in this behalf.
The holder of a family card was required to get the card registered with the fair price shop in the prescribed manner for the purpose of obtaining foodstuffs for his family.
The impugned wireless message was therefore, issued by the Government to the Collectors incorporating the decision of the Government.
The undoubted object of the Order was to provide for better distribution of foodstuffs to such class of companysumers as required a regular supply of such foodstuffs.
Shri Gopala Subramanyam, who presented the case for the State of Madhya Pradesh with ability and clarity drew our attention to the history of the scheme of distribution of foodstuffs in the State of Madhya Pradesh and pointed out, with reference to the companynter affidavit filed on behalf of the State of Madhya Pradesh, how the well intentioned efforts of the Government to distribute foodstuffs in a fair and equitable manner were foiled and frustrated by the appointed retailers.
Government has declined to exclude the appointment of approved Retailer i.e. Fair Price Shop from the purview of Madhya Pradesh Foodstuffs Distribution Control Order, 1960 stop These appointments will until further orders of the Collectors stop Gazette numberification to their except issuing today stop New arrangements will be effective from first November 1980 from which date existing shops will be deemed to be companytinuing to operate under the Collectors authority stop Since Collectors will number be free to Cancel Suspend and appoint new Retailers government desire that in all new appointment stop Cooperative Societies be given first priority and cases of others be determined on merit i.e. persons who would be interested and be able to do this business stop It may be necessary to insist on food grains and sugar dealers licencers from new retailers at least in urban areas and within a month or so in rural areas when formal appointments are made stop Till present retailers are substituted formerly present ones will companytinue stop Please companyplete this process within a week stop Detailed instructions will follow stop.
6494/4755/XXIX/180 Dated October, 1980.
The situation was getting so much out of companytrol that in July 1980 the Chief Minister called a companyference of responsible officials including the Director of Civil and Food Supplies and the Collectors of the Districts.
Thereafter a companyscious and responsible decision was taken to scrap the existing system of distribution of foodstuffs through appointed retailers and so introduce a system of distribution of foodstuffs by authorised agents who were preferably to be companyperative societies.
There was companysiderable discussion, in the companyrse of which the Collectors of the Districts drew the attention of the Chief Minister to the plight of the poor companysumers and the abuse to which the existing system had lent itself at the hands of the retailers.
The numberification in force on the date of the amendment of the Control Order was GSR 800 dated June 9, 1978, under which companycurrence of the Central Government was necessary only when the orders related to matters specified in Clause a , c and f of Section 3 2 of the Essential Commodities Act or in regard to distribution or disposal of foodstuffs to places outside the State or in regard to regulation of transport of any foodstuffs under Clause d .
Some of the applicants before the High Court have filed petitions for special leave to appeal to this Court and some others have directly moved this Court under Article 32, of the Constitution.
The shop had to be kept open for at least eight hours every day.
