Badar Durrez Ahmed, J.
1. This Petition which has been filed by way of Public Interest Litigation is concerned with the short supply of and adulteration in petrol and diesel. The further allegation is that the Petitioner was cheated by Respondent No. 5 who is engaged in selling petrol/diesel and in support of this allegation the Petitioner has set forth the instance of his Maruti 800 vehicle being filled with 31.1 litters of petrol when, as per his allegation, the fuel tank capacity is only 30 litters. This, the Petitioner alleges, clearly shows that there was a short supply of fuel to him although he was charged for 31.1 litters of petrol vide Receipt No. 0094 dated 16.5.2000. Inter alia, on the basis of this incident the Petitioner has sought that a writ of Mandamus be issued commanding the Respondent No. 1 to have a probe into the question of short and adulterated supply of petrol and diesel to the general public. The Petitioner has also sought a direction for the closure of the Respondent No. 5's Filling Station (Rakesh Filling Station) amongst other prayers.
2. Apart from the fact that the grievance of the Petitioner is in the nature of an individual complaint and does not fall within the ambit of Public Interest Litigation, we feel that, from the affidavits in reply filed by the Respondents, sufficient action has already been taken as will be indicated below and that, consequently, no further directions are necessary.
3. The Respondent No. 7 (I.B.P. Company Limited) in its reply/affidavit has stated that upon inspection carried out by its officers, it came to the conclusion that in point of fact some short delivery had actually been made to the Petitioner. When they made inspection of the retail outlet of Respondent No. 5 they found that one out of 12 dispensing units of MS (Petrol), was found to be not in operation, 7 were found to be delivering OK, one was delivering in excess by 40 ml and 3 were found to be delivering short by 60 ml, 50 ml and 50 ml respectively. Out of eight dispensing units of HSD (Diesel) one was found to be non- operational, five were delivering OK, one was delivering in excess by 25 ml. and one was found to be delivering short by 50 ml. They also found that the dispensing unit of petrol from where the Petitioner had been affected delivery was delivering OK and, more importantly, that the Weights and Measures seals were found to be intact in all the dispensing units. Accordingly, Respondent No. 5 was advised to suspend sales from all the dispensing units which were delivering short or excess and was asked to have the said units recalibrated by the Weights and Measures Department. They further pointed out in their affidavit that a Show Cause Notice dated 25.5.2000 had also been issued upon Respondent No. 5 in line with the policy/Guidelines laid down in this respect and uniformly followed by the entire Oil Industry.
4. After considering Respondent No. 5's Reply to the said Show Cause Notice, Respondent No. 7 permitted Respondent No. 5 to resume sales with effect from 27.5.2000 as recalibration of the faulty units had been done by the Weights and Measures Department on 26.5.2000. It is also stated that the short/excess delivery of petrol/diesel could have been on account of some mechanical fault.
5. Respondent No. 10 (Controller of Weights and Measures) has also filed his affidavit in reply in which it is stated that after receipt of the complaint of the Petitioner, a surprise check was conducted on the petrol pump in question on 10.10.2001 and it was found that the dispensing unit was short supplying petrol. It is further stated that as and when due to mechanical or other failures, the dispensing units give erratic supply, the petrol pump owner, with a certificate from the representative of the Oil company, approaches the stamping authority for recalibration and on deposit of prescribed fees the dispensing unit is recalibrated. These petrol pumps are regularly inspected by the Inspectorate staff of the Weights and Measures Department from time to time. For this purpose they employee a check measure of 5 Lt. (Conical measure). If short delivery is beyond the permissible limit i.e. 15 ml. for 5 lt. measurement, prosecution case is made under Section 39(2) of Standard of Weights and Measures (Enforcement) Act, 1985 and the dispensing unit delivering short supply of petrol is ordered to be closed, until the unit is recalibrated for which permission of Controller of Weights and Measures is required. As regards prosecution, which is made under Section 39(2), the petrol pump owner is given notice for compounding the offence and the petrol pump owner who does not opt for compounding the offence, the case in a form of a complaint is forwarded to the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate for further action. It is further mentioned in the affidavit that the question of adulteration is dealt with by the Food and Civil Supplies Department of Government of NCT under the Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply and Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order, 1998 which is issued under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. It is further pointed that as and when complaints are received from the general public the same are attended to from time to time and in the Financial Year 2000-2001 Respondent No. 10 conducted 1497 inspections of petrol pumps out of which 68 petrol pump owners were prosecuted and that in the current financial year nearly 810 inspections had been carried out and 19 prosecutions had been launched against errant petrol pumps.
6. In view of the foregoing we are satisfied that there exists a machinery whereby errant pumps dispensing petrol/diesel are monitored and upon receipt of complaints are duly inspected and if necessary prosecutions are launched under the provisions of the existing law. In the particular case of the Petitioner also we are satisfied that action as was required to be taken has been taken by Respondents.
7. In passing we would like to mention that learned Counsel for the Petitioner drew our attention to page 139 of the Paper Book which is a part of the document entitled 'Marketing Discipline Guidelines for RO/SKO Dealerships of Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies'(effective 12th May1998) and pointed out the penalties of Suspension of Sales, Fine and Termination as a recourse against Respondent No. 5. However, these penalties would only apply when the Weight and Measures seals are tampered with as indicated in Paragraph 2 at page 139 itself. In the present case, the Weights and Measures seals were found to be intact and accordingly no such action as suggested by learned Counsel for the Petitioner was warranted.
8. In these circumstances, we feel that no direction is required to be issued in the present case and accordingly, we dispose of the Petition.