SC cancels arbitrary allotment of petrol pumps, gas agencies, depots

New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) The Supreme Court today ordered cancellation of 97 tainted allotments of petrol pumps, LPG gas agencies and kerosene oil depots in eight states i.e Himachal Pradesh (11), Punjab (20), Rajasthan (33), Haryana (14), Gujarat (3), Chhattisgarh(3) and Jharkhand (4) and Tamil Nadu (10).

A bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justices C K Thakkar and R V Raveendran granted three-months time to the allotees to pack up.

The Supreme Court appointed committee comprising former Supreme Court Judge Justice S C Aggarwal and former Delhi High Court Judge Justice P K Bahri had examined 409 illegal allotments made from January 2000 till August 2002 and had found 297 allotments illegal prompted by considerations other than merit.

A national English daily had exposed the scandal in its report dated August 2 to August 5, 2002 alleging that in total 3850 tainted allotments had been made in violation of official guidelines to the favourites and kith and kin of politicians. The then Vajpayee Government had passed a general order cancelling all allotments made from January 2000 onwards.

The order was challenged by way of writ petitions filed in various high courts by the agrieved allotees.

The apex court transferred all the cases to itself and stayed the cancellation of allotment and issued notices to the Union Petroleum Ministry. Remaining 166 allotments as per the report of the two judges committee in other states are still under consideration of the courts. The court today directed that the petitions shall be placed before the Chief justice of India for being allotted to the appropriate bench for disposal.

The court however set aside the cancellation of allotment in about 20 borderline cases in eight states.

UNI