Pumps: SC may stay ban, seeks dealership details

The Supreme Court today indicated it may stay the Centre’s blanket ban on allotments following the petrol pump scam and transfer from h...

The Supreme Court today indicated it may stay the Centre’s blanket ban on allotments following the petrol pump scam and transfer from high courts petitions representing the dealers affected.

Adjourning the Centre’s transfer petition by two days, a bench comprising Chief Justice B.N. Kirpal, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice Arijit Pasayat asked for details of 483 dealerships oil companies are said to have taken over since the cancellation order.

The bench said only after it received those details would it be able to determine what kind of an interim order is required to be passed.

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The stay order that is proposed to be passed will have to make a special provision for the 483 dealerships already taken over by oil companies. One option is that the oil companies be allowed to run those outlets for the time being on condition that separate accounts be maintained for them.

The court said it required details of those 483 outlets to know how many of them were owned by oil companies and how many by dealers. Besides, some of those affected allottees might have been war widows and other deserving candidates.

For the present, Solicitor General Harish Salve appears to have succeeded in persuading the court to transfer the matter to itself rather than to the Delhi High Court.

Salve informed the court that 3,546 dealerships of petrol pumps, LPG and kerosene were cancelled on August 9 in public interest. Of these, he said, 2,248 were in operation. In the case of the remaining 1,298, only letters of intent had been issued. Of the 2,248 in operation, oil companies had taken possession of only 483 outlets after the August 9 order.