Unfair: Allahabad High Court Comes To Aid Of Man Whose Petrol Pump Allotment Was Cancelled By BPCL Over Minor Typo

The Allahabad High Court recently observed that cancelling a petrol pump dealership solely on the basis of a typographical error in the location is unfair and without any basis in law. A bench of Justice Shekhar B Saraf and Justice Indrajeet Shukla noted this is especially true when the dealer has already spent a huge sum of money acting on the Letter of Intent (LOI) issued by the authority. Briefly put, an advertisement was published by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. for petrol pump retail outlets across various locations. The petitioner applied for one such location and was successfully granted a Letter of Intent in 2020. However, based on a complaint filed by an advocate, the allotment was cancelled in 2022 on the ground that the word 'MDR' (Major District Road) was mentioned instead of 'ODR' (Other District Road). The corporation took this step despite admitting that the drafting fault was entirely their own and that the petitioner's application was complete in all other respects. This cancellation was subsequently challenged before the High Court. The Corporation defended its action by arguing that the local Lekhpal's report, which stated the land in question was on an MDR, was misleading and that the land actually falls on an ODR. The Court rejected this reasoning and held that the cancellation could not be said to be in the larger public interest. The bench pointed out that no member of the public had filed any complaint alleging they were deprived of the opportunity to apply for the dealership due to the incorrect address. Furthermore, the Court observed that there was absolutely no doubt regarding the identity of the advertised property.Noting that only the letter 'M' had been wrongly mentioned in place of the letter 'O', the bench held thus:"The location is otherwise complete in all respects. In our view, such an error is a typographical error and cancelling the dealership including the letter of intent that has been issued to the petitioner in the year 2020 after the period of two years would not be just unfair but would also be without any basis in law. One has to keep in mind that the petitioner has proceeded with the letter of intent, expended a huge some of money in creation of the petrol pump giving rise to a right of legitimate expectation that the authority shall continue with the project and the letter of intent issued to him".Observing that no other complaint had been received from the public regarding anyone being deprived of applying for the retail outlet due to petitioner's occupation, the Court quashed the impugned order and directed the authorities to continue with the letter of intent issued to the petitioner. Case Title: Radhvendra Awasthi v. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Thru. Its Chairman Cum Managing Director And 2 Others 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 173Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 173Click Here To Read/Download Order

Unfair: Allahabad High Court Comes To Aid Of Man Whose Petrol Pump Allotment Was Cancelled By BPCL Over Minor Typo

Upasna Agrawal

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