PDS Depots Not Profit Oriented, Unscrupulous License Holders Must Be Weeded Out: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court has dismissed an appeal filed by a Fair Price Depot owner challenging the order cancelling his authorisation and forfeiting the security deposit made by him after he was found guilty of malpractice in distributing food grains.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit, dismissed the appeal filed by K L Shivanna and said, “The business that is run by PDS Depots is more in the nature of public service and not profit orientation. Unscrupulous PDS Depot Holders need to be weeded out so that the public interest which the policy intends is duly served, especially when the PDS cardholders belong to lower economic strata of the society.”

The Appellant was earlier levied with penalty of Rs.2,000 and a warning. Subsequently, he was also penalised similarly. Later, the Jurisdictional Tahsildar having received representation from the cardholders had made an enquiry and as many as 39 persons had given a statement about the grave lapses committed by the Appellant while distributing the food grains.

Thus rejecting the contention of the appellant that previous lapses were not notified to him and therefore the same cannot be made use of detrimentally to his interest, the court observed “What is being examined is the implementation of PDS Control Policy of the State Government, and not some private largesse granted to a citizen.”

Accordingly it dismissed the appeal as being devoid of merits.

Appearance: Advocate Gangadharappa A V for Appellant.

AGA Niloufer Akbar for Respondent.

Citation No: 2024 LiveLaw (Kar) 40

Case Title: K L Shivanna AND Deputy Commissioner, Tumkuru District

Case No: Writ Appeal No 1359 OF 2023

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