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TMI Blog2005 (5) TMI 682X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mployed graduate, resident of Kangra district, family income not more that ₹ 24000/-, having no close relatives as a dealer or distributor of any oil company and the applicant also should not be a partner or having dealership or distributorship agency in any petroleum corporation company. The appellants viz., Bhagwan Dass and Ashok Kumar applied jointly as partners along with other applicants. Respondent no.1 Smt. Kamal Abrol and respondent no.5 Shri Abhay Singh had also applied for the said dealership/distributorship rights. There were other applicants also along with these applicants. The Oil Selection Board called the appellants and respondent nos. 1 and 5 for interview as their applications were found prima facie falling within the criteria laid down for selection. The interviewing Selection Board recommended their names to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited in form of a merit list that consisted of respondent no. 1, respondent no. 5 and the appellants in the order of merit. Respondent no.3, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), had issued letter of intent to respondent no.1 and she was directed to complete certain formalities to make the allotment in her favou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dealership. The net result of the judgment and decree of the First appeal court was that respondent nos. 1 and 5 were held not eligible for the dealership/distributorship rights whereas the appellants were held entitled to allotment of the dealership/distributorship in Kangra Distt., they being the only candidate remaining for the selection of distributorship right. Aggrieved by the order of the First appellate court, 3 appeals were preferred, two by Kamal Abrol and the third one by HPCL before the High Court. The High Court had framed various questions of law and had held the question of territorial jurisdiction in favour of the appellants. On the matter of mandatory injunction granted by the First appellate court, it has been held by the High Court that there was no contract between the respondents and the appellants to allot the dealership and, therefore, there is no question of specific performance of contract or enforcement thereof. It is further held that the Corporation was under no obligation to accept the recommendation of respondent no. 2, therefore, no mandate can be issued by the Court to that effect as it is the administrative discretion and set aside the decision ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ; as defined in Oxford Dictionary is to dwell permanently or for considerable time, to have one's stay or usual abode, to live in or at a particular place . Similarly, the Webster's Dictionary has defined it as to dwell permanently and for any length of time and words like dwelling place or abode are held to be synonymous. From the above it can be seen that the term 'residence' makes it clear that the word 'residents' includes two types which are: 1) a permanent residence and 2) a temporary residence. First type of residence form all the permanent dwelling which means that the person has settled down at a particular place permanently and regularly for some purpose. The second type refers to a situation that the person is not residing at a place forever but residing at a place for a temporary period or not for a considerable length of time. This is also referred to a temporary living in a place. Hence, in one place the word 'residence' is interpreted in the strict sense to include only permanent living at a place which may be referred to a domicile and in the second place the word is interpreted flexible sense to show a temporary or tentative res ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . It clearly does not indicate the place of origin. The words residence is flexible and has many shades of meaning but it must take its colour and content from the context in which it appears and it cannot be read in isolation. By this decision another dimension was added to the concept of residence in the form of concept of de facto residence and the concept of de jure residence. The Supreme Court in this case has clearly distinguished between the concept of actual residence or de facto residence and legal residence or de j ure residence. The actual residence means the place where the person is residing actually at a given point of time. On the other hand concept of de jure residence or the legal residence means the place at which the person is residing in law. The latter form of residence may or may not be the actual residence or the place where the person actually stays or reside. A person holding property or land in a particular place or city or having some ancestral roots to the city may be a resident of that particular place in the legal sense, but his actual residence will be the place where he is presently residing and coupled with the fact of animus manedi or an intention ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he intention of the framers of the eligibility criteria to understand the true meaning or the sense for which the word 'resident' is used or as to why the criteria of resident is put as an eligibility criteria for allotment of LPG. In the present case the intention of the framers appears to be to provide employment or source of earning for the residents of the Kangra district in the form of LPG dealership/distributorship. The eligibility criterion requires the person to be a resident of Kangra district only in the actual sense and not in any other sense. What is required to fulfill the eligibility criteria of the residence is that the person should be a de facto residence and not to have the mere connection with the place on account of her husband having some personal and ancestral property in Kangra. There is no finding recorded by the Court that the husband of Respondent No.1 is permanently residing at Kangra or has permanent abode in Kangra. From the finding arrived at by the High Court it can be said that her husband having ancestral property in Kangra is a visitor to that place and occasionally resides there for a few days. Respondent No.1 prima facie appears to be a p ..... 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