The Allahabad High Court has upheld the cancellation of a fair price shop dealership in a case where black marketing was done by withdrawing essential commodities against 697 cardholders by using 3 Aadhaar Cards. The High Court noted that the use of the Aadhaar cards to withdraw ration was not reasonably explained by the accused.

The Petition before the High Court was filed by the petitioner, challenging the order cancelling her fair price shop dealership and the order dismissing the appeal filed by her.

The Single Bench of Justice Arun Kumar stated, “In view of the aforesaid discussion, it is evident that use of three Aadhaar cards to withdraw ration of 697 cardholders has not been reasonably explained by the petitioner. There is nothing on record to show that 162 affidavits filed by the petitioner, accepting receipt of essential commodities from her, are from 697 cardholders, whose ration has been withdrawn by resorting to interpolation. Even though, 162 cardholders accept receipt of ration regularly, petitioner cannot be obliterated from showing that, the use of three Aadhaar Card numbers for 697 cardholders was not her own volition.”

Advocate Radha Mohan Pandey represented the Petitioner, while Chief Standing Counsel represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

The Food Commissioner, U.P. Lucknow, issued a communication to the District Supply Officers of 43 districts, including Ghaziabad, annexing the distribution of a list of essential commodities by various fair price shop dealers, which showed that one Aadhaar Card was used for the withdrawal of rations to various cardholders. On the aforesaid communication, an exparte enquiry was conducted, and a First Information Report was lodged against the petitioner and 21 others under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, read with Sections 3,7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. The fair price shop dealership of the petitioner was suspended on the allegation that black marketing was done by withdrawing essential commodities against 697 cardholders by using three Aadhaar Cards. The appeal filed by the petitioner was also dismissed. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioner approached the High Court.

Reasoning

The Bench took note of the fact that the petitioner’s fair price shop dealership was suspended for black marketing by resorting to manipulation in the E-PoS device through which three Aadhaar card numbers were used to withdraw essential commodities in respect of 697 registered cardholders.

The Bench found that upon the enquiry conducted by the Coordinate Bench on the same issue relating to a different district for the same period i.e. July, 2018, it was discovered that the feeding in the E-PoS machine could be done throughout the day when machine was in the dynamic mode wherein system operator could enter details and edit the same, number of times till it was finally locked during the evening hours.

The Single Judge had found that when this scam was unearthed, it was a period when the manual process of distribution of essential commodities was in a transition phase for the use of the E-PoS machine. Taking advantage of the fact that all the ration cardholders attached to a particular dealer/shop were not fed and the process was underway, while the distribution of essential commodities continued, interpolation was made by the dealer in the details by using one or two Aadhaar numbers, and ration for multiple cardholders were withdrawn.

In the absence of specific pleadings alleging mala fides against the Officers of the State Government, the Bench discarded the argument of the Petitioner that the officials of the department had committed gross irregularities and, in order to save their skin, they were placing the burden upon the petitioner by lodging a false FIR.

Thus, finding the petition to be devoid of merit, the Bench dismissed the same.

Cause Title: Smt. Shahin Begum v. State of U.P. (Neutral Citation: 2025:AHC:208347)

Appearance

Petitioner: Advocates Radha Mohan Pandey, Vishal Tandon

Respondent: Chief Standing Counsel, Advocate Ram Bahadur Singh, Suresh Singh

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Allahabad High Court

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.