Jharkhand High Court: Sujit Narayan Prasad, J. dismissed a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India whereby the petitioner sought for a direction upon the respondents to allot a shop situated at the Municipal Library in the name of the petitioner on the ground that he has been running the aforesaid shop since long.
The petitioner was not the allottee of the shop, rather, the shop was sublet in his favour by the original allottee. As the period of lease of the original allottee had expired, the petitioner handed over the keys of the shop with an application for consideration for allotment of the shop in his favour, but the shop was allotted to someone else. The petitioner argued that he was not allotted the shop as he was not deemed fit or proper since he was a handicapped person. The petitioner further submitted that he has been running the shop for long, and therefore priority ought to have been given by the respondents in allotment of the said shop. Counsel for the State submitted that the petitioner had no right to claim the allotment of the said shop since the said shop was never allotted in his favour, rather, he was tenant of the original allottee and after expiry of the lease in favour of the original allottee, the petitioner had no right to remain in the said premises. Furthermore, the order of allotment made in favour of the other person was never assailed.
The Court heard both the parties and decided that the shop in question was never allotted in the favour of the petitioner, rather, he was claiming allotment of the said shop by virtue of the fact that he was in occupation by way of the tenant by the original allottee. The allotment of the shop by virtue of the expiry of the lease expired and therefore, the petitioner had no right to remain in possession of the said shop. The petitioner had simply prayed in this writ petition for allotment of the said shop on the ground that he was handicapped and was running a shop in the said premises since long, but merely because the petitioner is handicapped, no sympathy could be shown by the Court ignoring the process of allotment of the shop. Also, the order of allotment was also never under challenge. The writ petition was dismissed. [Amarendra Kumar v. State of Jharkhand, 2019 SCC OnLine Jhar 1451, decided on 18-10-2019]
