The Hindu : Consumers won't suffer, says Centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 27, 2002

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National

Consumers won't suffer, says Centre

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Aug. 26. The Centre today maintained that the supply of petrol, liquefied petrol gas and kerosene would not be affected by the August 9 cancellation order as it pertained only to five per cent of the total 19,000 retail outlets.

The Solicitor-General, Harish Salve, said this before a three-judge Bench, headed by the Chief Justice B.N. Kirpal, hearing the Centre's transfer petition. He submitted that the cancellation order covered 3,546 allotments made since January 1, 2000, and, of them, only 2,248 had been commissioned. Only letters of intent had been issued with respect to the remaining dealerships. And of those commissioned, 483 pumps and agencies had been taken over by the oil companies.

When the Bench indicated that it would order a `status quo' as on August 9, and allow the oil companies to run the petrol pumps in respect of 483 outlets by maintaining a separate account, counsel for some of the allottees submitted that not in all the cases, the outlets were owned by the oil companies. They argued that there were war widows and other special category allottees who could not be equated with others. The Bench then sought the details of the 483 outlets taken over by the oil companies so that it could pass an appropriate interim order on Wednesday.

In its transfer petition, the Centre had submitted that a serious controversy had arisen over the credibility of the system of selecting petrol pump and gas dealerships. In order to maintain confidence in the system, a policy decision had been taken to cancel all the 3,546 allotments made on the recommendations of the Dealer Selection Boards since January 2000.

The common question of law in all the petitions pending in various High Courts would relate to the legality and validity of the August 9 directive as well as the termination effected by the oil companies, including the question of whether a hearing had to be given to individual dealers prior to cancellation.

The petition said that as substantial question of law of general importance was involved in all the cases, with a view to avoiding inconsistent decisions in different High Courts, it would be in the interest of justice if they were transferred to the Supreme Court and disposed of together. An interim stay of all the proceedings pending before the High Courts was also sought.

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