Punjab & Haryana High Court: The Bench of Tejinder Singh Dhindsa, J. dismissed a civil writ petition assailing order of licensor (tourism corporation) restraining the licensee (petitioner herein) from selling ‘soya chaap’ from an outlet at Chef Lakeview; holding that the petitioner had violated terms of the contract awarded to him.
Petitioner herein was allotted a contract for managing and operating a ‘steamed corns’ outlet at Chef Lakeview, Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh by the respondent-corporation. He sought permission from the respondent authority to sell an additional item, i.e. ‘soya chaap’ from the outlet in question; and his request was acceded to vide letter dated 27-12-2018.
Counsel for the petitioner Mr Balbir Singh Sewak contended that the impugned order had been passed arbitrarily without affording any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. He referred to clause 14 of the allotment/contract letter as per which any change in the authorized trade could be made only with the permission in writing of the licensor (respondent). Since the respondent had given consent for selling of additional item vide its letter dated 27-12-2018, therefore the impugned decision could not have been made without issuance of notice to the petitioner.
The Court noted that as per clause 6 of the allotment letter, petitioner was permitted to operate a ‘steamed corns’ counter for selling only corn-based items. License fee for the outlet allotted to petitioner had been fixed in relation to the product/food item that he had been permitted to sell. Therefore, respondent-licensor was certainly within its powers to take necessary remedial steps so as to permit trade and business of the petitioner in terms of the original contract/allotment letter. Thus, the submission advanced by Mr Sewak as regards violation of the principles of natural justice was rejected by the Court.
The petition was dismissed holding that no interference was called for in the impugned order.[Rajesh Goyal v. Chandigarh Industrial Tourism Development Corporation Ltd., 2019 SCC OnLine P&H 372, decided on 11-04-2019]
