NEW DELHI, Aug 28: India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday restored operating rights for more than 3,000 gas stations which had been cancelled by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in his bid to clamp down on a major scam.

A three-judge bench headed by India’s Chief Justice B. N. Kirpal ruled in an interim order that all cancelled operating rights of gas stations and cooking fuel dealerships be restored pending a final court hearing on November 12.

Vajpayee on Aug 9 ordered the cancellation of all allotments made since 2000 after a newspaper revealed that many of them earmarked for war widows and freedom fighters had been grabbed by relatives and friends of public figures.

The court came down heavily on Vajpayee’s government for not issuing notices to the operators before cancelling a total of 3,546 allotments.

“Dealers and distributors shall continue to operate their dealerships or distributorships as per their original contract or agreement with the oil companies concerned,” the judges said in the interim order.

Vajpayee’s order sparked off a plethora of litigations with hundreds of operators rushing to lower courts across the country to seek restoration.

One of the first to buck Vajpayee’s ruling was Aparna Mishra, a niece of the premier himself. She refused to accept the order arguing, like most others, that her station was a legitimate operation.

The Supreme Court bench said proceedings in all petitions made to high courts would remain suspended pending the final verdict.

The court also ordered the restoration of 483 petrol pumps, cooking gas agencies and kerosene dealerships which have been taken over by state-run oil companies after Vajpayee’s orders.

“We direct possession be restored to dealers who shall maintain proper account and continue to operate their respective business as per their original contract with the oil companies,” the ruling added.—AFP