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Sunita Gupta v. Union of India and others

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 4681 of 2014)Decided 22 Apr 2014
Civil Appeal No. 4681 of 2014
Justice Gyan Sudha Misra · Justice V. Gopala Gowda

Background

Sunita applied for an HPCL petrol outlet reserved for women, offering family land with consent from her husband and father-in-law. After a satisfactory site visit and interview, she ranked first and was declared selected. HPCL then cancelled the selection and removed her land marks, saying consent from other co-owners had been supplied too late.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and directed restoration of her appointment within six weeks of receipt of the order. The initial documents and offered land had satisfied the requirements, including consent from the relevant family members and an area greater than the minimum. The additional consents supporting the application did not justify reversing an already accepted qualifying proposal on a technicality. As a State instrumentality, HPCL had to act fairly even in a contractual selection. The Court held this cancellation arbitrary and unfair rather than granting a general exemption from dealership conditions.

Lesson Learnt

An applicant who actually met the land requirements could challenge arbitrary reversal of a completed selection. A public corporation had to assess the substance of the qualifying proposal fairly rather than use supplementary documents as a reason to cancel it.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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