Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court recently stayed the suspension of licence of a fair price shop, questioning the authenticity of a letter allegedly written by the “RSS headquarters”, on the basis of which the UP food and civil supplies department allegedly passed the order.Justice Pankaj Bhatia stayed the department’s order on a writ petition filed by a Gonda resident, Manoj Kumar, and directed state govt to file its reply in the matter, fixing the next hearing after six weeks. The bench also directed the petitioner to implead one Dinesh Shukla, on whose complaint the department had initiated the proceedings.The sub divisional magistrate concerned suspended the licence of the petitioner’s PDS outlet on June 30 on charges of distribution of poor quality food grains. He challenged the suspension order before the high court, alleging that the commissioner, food and civil supplies, had initiated the proceedings against him on the basis of an e-mail received purportedly from Nagpur-based RSS headquarters on Sept 5, 2024.The petitioner contended that state functionaries could not take any action against him on an RSS functionary’s recommendation. The department’s action of suspending his licence was mala fide and liable to be set aside, he argued. On perusal of the email and other documents, the bench expressed serious concern and questioned the govt counsel on how a letter written on a plain paper on behalf of a top RSS functionary could be taken to be authentic.
