Fair price dealers complain in Hyderabad High Court

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court expressed dismay over authorities for their attitude towards fair price shop dealers in AP.

Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, while allowing a petition by Dubba Ramakrishna Reddy seeking directions to the authorities to continue him as FP dealer at Duddekunta village in  Ananthpur district, has held that the entire official machinery is misused and the power of the officials is abused for extraneous reasons.

The petitioner sought release of the stock seized from the fair price by mandal revenue inspector and his staff on Dec 8, 2014, during an inspection. He alleged that all this was done due to political vengeance.

After perusing the documents and panchanama report, the judge noticed that the inspection report did not refer to the nature of alleged violations of the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, except containing a vague statement that the petitioner has violated the provisions of the Act.

Maintaining that the entire stock was seized for a minute variation in the stock register, the judge observed that other extraordinary manner in which the respondents have acted gives rise to a reasonable presumption that they have acted with oblique motive and mala fide intention. The energies and resources of the official machinery cannot be allowed to be misused for targeting individuals in the name of prevention of malpractices."