New Delhi, Aug 14: As the Union government moved it for relief, the Supreme Court today issued notices to several allottees of petrol pumps and LPG dealerships on the issue of transfer of all cases to the apex court or to a high court challenging the Centre`s decision to cancel such allotments. Fixing August 26 for hearing the matter, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice B N Kirpal, Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Arijit Pasayat issued the notices after the petition was "mentioned" by solicitor general Harish Salve and advocate Sanjay Kapur.
In the wake of the controversy over allotment of petrol pumps and dealerships in LPG and kerosene, the Prime Minister on August 9 directed cancellation of all allotments made by Dealership Selection Boards (DSBs) since January 1, 2000.
The government had also decided that all annulled petrol pumps and dealerships "may be auctioned on the basis of competitive bidding." However, several petitions were filed in the high courts of Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Allahabad, Madras, Calcutta, Gujarat and Karnataka and the two of them stayed the operation of the Centre`s directive in a few cases.
The Union government, in its petition, said "with a view to avoiding inconsistent decisions of the different high courts and district courts, it would be in the interest of justice that the Supreme Court may transfer the said cases to itself and dispose them or in the alternative transfer all such cases to one high court." Bureau Report