High Court of Himachal Pradesh: A civil writ petition was heard and decided by a Single Judge Bench comprising of Ajay Mohan Goel, J., wherein it was held that an order passed by the Director of Industries, to the detriment of the petitioner firm, was liable to be quashed for want of reasons.
The petitioner prayed before the Court to issue a writ in the nature of certiorari to quash the impugned order of the Director of Industries. By the impugned order, the Director of Industries decided against the representation filed by the petitioner-firm seeking a certain subsidy. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the said order was not a well reasoned and speaking order and thus was liable to be quashed.
The High Court perused the record and found that the impugned order was passed to the detriment of the petitioner as vide the impugned order, the subsidy sought by the petitioner was declined to be granted. On perusing the impugned order, the High Court was of the view that the said order was passed in a mechanical manner, it was not a speaking order, there was no reference to the contentions made by the petitioner in its representation, nor any reasoning was assigned as to why the contentions raised by the petitioner did not find merit with the Authority concerned. Accordingly, the petition was allowed and the impugned order was quashed for want of reasoning. [M/s Pasupati Spinning & Weaving Mills Ltd. v. State of H.P., 2018 SCC OnLine HP 21, order dated 5.1. 2018]