Authorities cannot reject a fair-price-shop applicant for lacking a UDID when the notification did not require one.

The authorities invited applications for a Fair Price Shop at Kondamvaripalli Village, with the authorization reserved for persons with disabilities.

Eight applications were received. The petitioner’s application was rejected, and authorization was proposed in favour of respondent No. 3.

The original records contained the petitioner’s disability certificate; he also produced his UDID card before the Court.

The petitioner separately disputed respondent No. 3’s residence in the village.

1. Whether the petitioner’s application could be rejected for failure to produce a UDID when the notification did not stipulate it as a requirement.

2. Whether the Court should decide the competing applicants’ eligibility, including the petitioner’s objection concerning respondent No. 3’s residence, or remit the applications for fresh consideration.

The Court directed reconsideration in accordance with the Karnataka Essential Commodity (Public Distribution System) Control Order, 2016.

It applied the principle that an authority assessing applications under a notification cannot reject an applicant for failing to satisfy a requirement that the notification did not prescribe; accordingly, the absence of a UDID requirement in the notification meant that the petitioner could not be expected to produce one.

No judicial precedent was cited.

The petitioner’s disability certificate was available in the official record, while the notification did not make production of a UDID a precondition.

The authority’s rejection on that ground was therefore unsustainable.

Although the petitioner also challenged respondent No. 3’s residence, the Court directed the authority to reconsider both applications afresh under the applicable Control Order rather than determine the applicants’ comparative eligibility itself.

It directed respondent No. 2 to reconsider the applications of the petitioner and respondent No. 3 in accordance with the Karnataka Essential Commodity (Public Distribution System) Control Order, 2016, within eight weeks of receiving the certified copy of the order.