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Tapas Kumar Das vs. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 225Decided 19 Mar 2024
Not available
Justice Dipankar Datta · Justice Sanjay Kumar

Background

HPCL advertised an LPG distributorship for a location called "Haripal" (within Haripal Block, Hooghly district, West Bengal), reserved for the Scheduled Caste category. The appellant won the distributorship in a draw of lots and deposited the required fees, but a rival applicant complained that the appellant's proposed showroom land was actually in the neighbouring village/mouza of Gopinagar, not Haripal village itself. HPCL cancelled the appellant's candidature on that basis. A single judge of the Calcutta High Court set aside the cancellation, but a Division Bench on appeal reversed that and upheld HPCL's cancellation, prompting this further appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court closely analysed the wording of the advertisement, noting it listed "Haripal" only under a general "Location" column (with "Block" and "District" columns separately), without specifying any village/mouza-level detail, and crucially classified the distributorship type as "Rurban" rather than purely "Rural": a technical distinction under HPCL's own Unified Guidelines that pointed toward a broader area, not a single named village. The Court held that an advertisement inviting public applications binds the issuing authority to what it actually says, and that reading in an unstated, narrower "village-only" requirement, as HPCL and the Division Bench had done relying on definitions from an unrelated Panchayat law, was legally impermissible, especially since HPCL had not pleaded that argument in its original defence. Finding the appellant's showroom land fell within Haripal Block as advertised, the Court set aside the Division Bench's judgment and restored the single judge's order directing HPCL to proceed with his candidature.

Lesson Learnt

A public advertisement inviting applications (for licenses, distributorships, jobs, etc.) binds the issuing authority to its own stated terms: an organisation cannot later disqualify a successful applicant by reading in stricter, unstated conditions that were never actually spelled out in the advertisement.

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

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