The Supreme Court on Friday confirmed its interim order cancelling many allotments of petrol pumps, LPG and kerosene outlets during the National Democratic Alliance regime to relatives of those connected with the alliance.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday confirmed its interim order cancelling many allotments of petrol pumps, LPG and kerosene outlets during the National Democratic Alliance regime to relatives of those connected with the alliance.
A bench headed by Chief Justice YK Sabharwal said those allotments which were cancelled on the basis of the report of its committee will have to close their outlets within three months.
The court rejected the contention that the court- appointed committee, comprising comprising its former judge SC Agarwal and former Delhi High Court Justice PK Bahri, did not had the jurisdiction to go into the issue of allotment.
However, the allotments protected by the interim order will continue till further orders of the court.
The Bench referred the matter to the registry for placing it before the next Chief Justice to assign the matter to another bench as Sabharwal was retiring on January 14.
The court's interim order was on the basis of a report by the two-member committee appointed to look into the procedure adopted by the Dealer Selection Boards for approving the allotments after a reported expose in 2002.
The committee had said that most of the allotments were illegal and were given on extraneous considerations and had recommended cancellation of such allotments.
Many were cancelled by the apex court on the basis of the report. Over 400 cases of tainted allotment were referred to the Committee.
The apex court had allowed the continuance of around 100 oil dealerships with original awardees as they were found to be in accordance with the prescribed norms.
In December 2002, the apex court had quashed the Central government's notification cancelling all the 3,760 allotments.
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