Restoration of a fair-price-shop licence warranted quashing the related Essential Commodities Act prosecution.

The petitioner sought quashing of FIR No. 246/2014, registered under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, after an inspection of his Fair Price Shop allegedly found a shortage of wheat and excess rice

The shop’s licence was first suspended and later restored; although it was subsequently cancelled, the Appellate Authority revoked the cancellation and restored the licence on 24 July 2014

The petitioner relied on earlier Delhi High Court decisions quashing FIRs in similar Fair Price Shop cases, particularly *Kamlesh v. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi)*

The State did not dispute that the present case was identical and that the reasoning in *Kamlesh* applied

1. Whether FIR No. 246/2014 and the proceedings arising from it should be quashed in light of the restoration of the petitioner’s Fair Price Shop licence and the cited precedents.

2. Whether the reasoning in *Kamlesh v. State* applied to the present case, as accepted by the State.

The FIR was registered under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

The Court relied on its prior decisions in *Sachin Goyal v. State* and *Sunni Kadian v. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi)*, and particularly on *Kamlesh v. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi)*, where criminal proceedings concerning an alleged Fair Price Shop irregularity were quashed in light of the restoration of the shop’s licence and the circumstances of that case.

The petitioner’s licence had been restored by the Appellate Authority after its cancellation was revoked.

The Court considered the present matter identical to *Kamlesh*, and the State did not contest the applicability of that decision’s reasoning.

Applying that reasoning, the Court concluded that the FIR and resulting proceedings should be quashed.

The petition and pending application were allowed.