Holding License To Run Fair Price Shop Cannot Be Said To Be Holding Civil Post; Article 311 Not Applicable: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has observed that holding a license to run the fair price shop cannot be said to be holding a civil post.

The bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna rendered this observation while considering a Special Leave Petition assailing Allahabad High Court's order dated October 22, 2021.

In the impugned order, the High Court had dismissed petitioner's plea challenging the order of appropriate authority cancelling her license to run the fair price shop.

Advocate Saurabh Pandey for the petitioner had submitted that Article 311 of the Constitution of India will apply with respect to cancellation of the fair price shop license.

Terming the petitioner's submission as "misconceived" and considering that there were number of serious irregularities found and it was found that the petitioner was a habitual offender the bench dismissed the SLP.

"The submission on behalf of the petitioner that with respect to cancellation of the fair price shop license, Article 311 of the Constitution of India shall be applicable is thoroughly mis- conceived. Holding a license to run the fair price shop cannot be said to be holding a civil post.

On merits, considering that there were number of serious irregularities found and it was found that the petitioner is a habitual offender, the license to run the fair price shop was rightly cancelled by the appropriate authority, which has been rightly confirmed by the High Court," the bench said in its order.

Case Title: Manju Sharma v The State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors| Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s). 3332/2022

Coram: Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna

Citation : 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 311

Counsel for Petitioner: Advocate(s) Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, Gaurav Agrawal, Saurabh Pandey, Pramod Tiwari, Vivek Tiwari, Priyanka Dubey and Shailaja Kant Dubey 

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