Court extends stay on petrol pump allocation to Tej Pratap

A Patna court extended today till July 15 its stay on the cancellation of a petrol pump alloted to Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap by Bharat Petroleum.
The extension of the stay order was given by Sub Judge Shashi Mishra of the Patna district court.
The court heard the matter on expiry of the earlier stay granted by another court of the district.
The counsel for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) argued that the initial agreement of allotment of petrol pump had said that the cancellation of allotment can be challenged only in the arbitration court and hence approaching a civil court against the cancellation was not right.

On this, the court ordered the minister's counsel to reply to the BPCL's contention on the next date of hearing on July 15.
Tej Pratap's petrol pump licence was cancelled by BPCL on June 10 following allegations that he had acquired the land for the pump "illegally."

The minister, who is the elder son of RJD president Lalu Prasad, had on June 16 last acquired an interim stay on the execution of the cancellation of the petrol pump licence.
On May 29 BPCL had served a show cause notice to Tej Pratap seeking his reply on allegations by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi that he was not the real owner of the land on Anisabad bypass road here on which the pump is situated.

The notice was served by Manish Kumar, BPCL Territory Manager (Retail), Patna. The complaint said that Tej Pratap had acquired the petrol pump by furnishing "wrong" information.
On expiry of show cause notice period, the BPCL announced its decision to cancel the petrol pump allotment to Tej Pratap Yadav.