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TMI Blog1958 (9) TMI 83X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... applied to the Chief Commissioner, Delhi, (Ex. 1) for licenses both in Forms L-1 and L-2 in respect of Karolbagh or at any place in Delhi. On May 17, 1951, the Home Secretary to the Chief Commissioner by letter (Ex. 2) conveyed to the appellants the sanction of the Chief Commissioner to the grant to them of license in Form L-2 in respect of Karolbagh, Delhi. This license has ever since then been renewed from year to year. In 1954 a vacancy arose in respect of a license in Form L-2 on account of the closure of the business of Messrs. Army and Navy Stores of Regal Buildings, New Delhi, which held such a license. Accordingly on January 21, 1954, the appellants submitted an application (Ex. 4) to the Deputy Commissioner for the grant of a foreign liquor license in Form L-2 in the aforesaid vacancy. In that application the appellants stated, inter alia, that they were prepared to operate it in such a part of Delhi as may be determined by the authorities . Not having received any reply for nearly 3 months and apprehending that interested persons were endeavouring to cause hindrance in the matter of the granting of the license to them on the plea that the appellants had no premises in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 295/C/54 dated August 31, 1954, to the Under Secretary, Finance, a copy of which was produced by the learned Solicitor General at the hearing before us. In this letter the Excise Commissioner explained why the application of the appellants was not considered by him to be a good and proper one and stated that reasons why, according to him, the applications of two , other applicants, including Messrs Gainda Mall Hem Raj (respondent No. 5), should be given the preference. In the penultimate paragraph of this letter of explanation it was stated: In the end it may also be added that the applicant has no premises in New Delhi and as such he had no claim. The license in Form L-2 is granted in respect of certain premises. The conclusion was that under the circumstances there is no force in the application of Messrs. Ghaio Mall and Sons. It is apparent that the Excise Commissioner did not remember that the appellants had, by their letter (Ex. 7) of May 21, 1954, addressed to him, stated that they had secured suitable premises also in the Connaught Place area, New Delhi. Be that as it may, on September 11, 1954, the appellants wrote another letter (Ex. 9) to the Chief Commissioner pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ner's recommendation may be accepted . There is nothing on the record produced before us to indicate that the matter was sent up to the Chief Commissioner or that his concurrence was obtained under s. 36 of the Government of Part C States Act (No. 49 of 1951). On December 14, 1954, the Under Secretary, Finance, wrote to the Excise Commissioner a letter which was for the first time produced at the hearing before the High Court and to which detailed reference will be made hereafter. On January 15, 1955, the appellants were informed that the change applied for by them in respect of their L-1 license had been allowed. The appellants were not told anything about the rejection of their application for L-2 license, but evidently they came to know that the L-2 license, for which a vacancy had arisen on account of the closure of Messrs. Army and Navy Stores, had been granted to Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj (respondent No. 5). On December 24, 1954, the appellants wrote severally to the Home Secretary (Ex. 14) Finance Secretary (Ex. 15) and the Under Secretary, Finance (Ex. 16) asking for a copy of the order or orders granting license to Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj and/or rejecting their ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ders or directions (a) quashing and setting aside the order of granting L-2 license to respondent No. 5, (b) directing the respondent No. 4 (the Chief Commissioner) to hold proper enquiry regarding suitability of premises etc., to hear both the parties and to decide the application of the petitioner before taking tip the application of the 5th respondent. There is a prayer in the nature of a prayer for further and other reliefs and there is the usual prayer for costs. A Written statement verified by the affidavit of Shri. S. K. Majumdar, the Finance Secretary, has been filed on behalf of respondents I to 4. In paragraph 5 of that written statement it has been averred that all the applications including the appellants' application were in fact considered; but it is significant that it has not been stated by whom the applications had been considered. Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj have filed an affidavit only stating that they had been informed that the Chief Commissioner had sanctioned the grant of the license to them. The appellants, with the leave of the High Court, filed a consolidated affidavit setting out facts including the fact that although they had written to the Home S ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . It was not considered necessary to send an intimation of rejection to all those who had not been granted the license in question. There is therefore no specific order rejecting the petitioner's application as ordered to be produced by the Hon'ble Court. Although it was obvious what order of the Chief Commissioner the appellants were insisting on being produced, the respondents were prompt in taking advantage of the wording of the High Court's order directing the production of the order rejecting the appellants' application and stated that there was no specific order rejecting the appellants' application. This is nothing short of what may be called swearing by the card. The deponent overlooks the fact that the order granting the license to Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj was in effect tantamount to a rejection of the appellants' application. The appellants moved the High Court again on August 8, 1955. After stating how the respondents were evading the real issue, the appellants in paragraph 5 of the petition categorically stated that their case was that the Chief Commissioner, Delhi, the competent authority, had not passed any order sanctioning the license ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , none of them ventured to file an affidavit dealing with the categorical statement of the appellants that no order had at any time been made by the Chief Commissioner for granting the L-2 license to Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj or rejecting the appellants' application. Instead of adopting the simple and straight forward way these respondents have taken recourse to putting up the Finance Secretary to give obviously evasive replies which are wholly unconvincing. It is needless to say that the adoption of such dubious devices is not calculated to produce a favourable impression on the mind of the court as to the good faith of the authorities concerned in the matter. We must also point out that when a superior court issues a rule on an application for certiorari it is incumbent OD the inferior court or the quasi-judicial body, to whom the rule is addressed, to produce the entire records before the court along with its return. The whole object of a writ of certiorari is to bring up the records of the inferior court or other quasi- judicial body for examination by the superior court so that the latter may be satisfied that the inferior court or the quasi-judicial body has not gone be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cations could not be entertained, one of the reasons being that they had no premises in the Connaught Place area in New Delhi, that a note was then put up by the Under Secretary, Finance, on September 3, 1954, suggesting that the appellants' application should be rejected, if for nothing else, for their not having any premises in New Delhi (which according to the appellants was not a correct statement in view of their letters referred to above) and that the L-2 license should be granted to Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj, that the Chief Minister on September 14, 1954, made an order on the file accordingly and finally that the Under Secretary, Finance, wrote the letter 'dated December 14, 1954, to the Excise Commissioner intimating that the Chief Commissioner had been pleased to approve the grant of the license to Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj. There is nothing on the record to show that the concurrence with the order of the Chief Minister was obtained from the Chief Commissioner. The inexorable force of the aforesaid facts, now appearing on the record, inevitably led the learned Solicitor General to concede that, on the records as they are, it is not possible for him to say that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ;s letter of August 31, 1954. In the third place the writer quite candidly states that he had been directed to say something by whom, it is not stated. This makes it quite clear that this document is not the order of the Chief Commissioner but only purports to be a communication at the direction of some unknown person-of the order which the Chief Commissioner had made. Indeed in paragraph 7 of the respondents' statement filed in the High Court on February 2,1955, this letter has been stated to have conveyed the sanction of the Chief Commissioner of the grant of license to the 5th respondent . A document which conveys the sanction can hardly be equated with the sanction itself Finally the document does not purport to have been authenti- cated in the form in which authentication is usually made. There is no statement at the end of the letter that it has been written by order of the Chief Commissioner . For all these reasons it is impossible to read this document as the order of the Chief Commissioner. Learned counsel for Messrs. Gainda Mall Hem Raj relied on our decision in Dattatreya Moreshwar Pangarkar v. The State of Bombay (1). In that case there was ample eviden ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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