Rights of the State as the owner and lessor of largesse (allotment of land, grant of quota, permit licence, etc.) can be transferred only by adopting a fair and transparent process by which the State brings the best possible price – Rights of the State as the lessor can only be sold by a public auction or by any other transparent method by which, apart from the lessee, others too, get a right to submit their offer – Selling a largesse at a nominal price will not be a fair and transparent method and shall be arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
The State and/ or its agencies/instrumentalities cannot give largesse to any person according to the sweet will and whims of the political entities and/or officers of the State. Every action/decision of the State and/or its agencies/ instrumentalities to give largesse or confer benefit must be founded on a sound, transparent, discernible and well-defined policy, which shall be made known to the public by publication in the Official Gazette and other recognised modes of publicity and such policy must be implemented/executed by adopting a nondiscriminatory and non-arbitrary method irrespective of the class or category of persons proposed to be benefited by the policy. The distribution of largesse like allotment of land, grant of quota, permit licence, etc. by the State and its agencies/instrumentalities should always be done in a fair and equitable manner and the element of favouritism or nepotism shall not influence the exercise of discretion, if any, conferred upon the particular functionary or officer of the State.
The Grant of any form of largesse by the State or its agencies/instrumentalities by treating the exercise as a private venture is liable to be treated as arbitrary, discriminatory and an act of favouritism and/ or nepotism violating the soul of the equality clause embodied in Article 14 of the Constitution.
The competent authority should, as a matter of course, issue an advertisement incorporating therein the conditions of eligibility so as to enable all similarly situated eligible persons, institutions/ organisations to participate in the process of allotment of largesse, whether by way of auction or otherwise. The Government may allot largesse at a fixed price but in that case also allotment must be preceded by a wholesome exercise consistent with Article 14 of the Constitution.
The rights of the State as the lessor can only be sold by a public auction or by any other transparent method by which, apart from any lessee, others too get a right to submit their offer. Selling any type of largesse to any of its lessee at a nominal price will not be a fair and transparent method at all. It will be arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.