In Brief
Tapas Kumar Das applied for an LPG distributorship reserved for Scheduled Caste members under serial no. 624, advertised for 'Location' Haripal in Block Haripal, Hooghly district, with 'Rurban' market type. After selection, HPCL cancelled his candidature because his proposed showroom land was in mouza Gopinagar, not mouza Haripal. The High Court's Single Judge allowed his writ petition, finding the advertisement showed only Block Haripal without requiring a specific mouza. The Division Bench reversed this. The Supreme Court held that the advertisement's unqualified reference to 'Haripal' as location, combined with 'Rurban' (not 'Rural') classification and absence of a 'Gram Panchayat' column in Part 2, reasonably conveyed the location requirement as Haripal block. HPCL cannot cancel based on unstated criteria. Courts cannot rewrite advertisements but must interpret ambiguous ones reasonably in favor of applicants. The appeal was allowed and the Single Judge's order restored.
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