Allahabad High Court
M/S Digiana Industries Pvt Ltd vs State Of U.P. And Another on 3 January, 2024
Bench: Anjani Kumar Mishra, Jayant Banerji
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC:572-DB
Court No. - 3
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 43674 of 2023
Petitioner :- M/S Digiana Industries Pvt Ltd
Respondent :- State of U.P. and Another
Counsel for Petitioner :- P.H. Vashishtha
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Anjani Kumar Mishra,J.
Hon'ble Jayant Banerji,J.
1. Heard counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the controversy in the instant writ petition is squarely covered by the order which has been passed in a similar matter, copy of which has been found at page 94 of the paperbook and that an identical order be passed in this petition.
3. Learned Standing Counsel has no objection to this prayer.
4. The present petition has been filed challenging the demand notice dated 09.08.2023, issued by the respondent No. 2, so far as it relates to demand of DMF amount.
5. It has been stated by the petitioner and the said fact has not been denied by the learned Standing Counsel that the issue regarding liability to pay the DMF amount, i.e., the amount due to the District Mineral Foundation Trust has already been concluded by a Division Bench judgment of this Court dated 15.11.2017 passed in Writ - C No. 54052 of 2017 against which a Special Leave to Appeal (C) No. 3516 of 2017 has been filed before the Supreme Court.
6. It has been stated in the petition that in the aforesaid special leave to appeal, the Supreme court has passed an interim order permitting the petitioner to deposit the statutory royalty and furnish a bank guarantee of the balance amount of royalty claimed by the respondent and the demand notices shall remain stayed on the petitioner furnishing the bank guarantee.
7. A bunch of writ petitions in which the leading case was Writ - C No. 16647 of 2020 (M/s Hardik Distributors Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of U.P. and others), this Court passed an order dated 17.05.2023 disposing of the aforesaid petitions.
8. The operative part of the order dated 17.05.2023, passed by this Court is reproduced below:
"4. We find that this batch of writ petitions are pending in this court from last several years. Therefore, we propose to dispose of all these writ petitions, providing as under:
(i) All the writ petitions are disposed of in terms of the Division Bench judgment of this court dated 15.11.2017 in Writ-C No.54052 of 2017, which shall be subject to the final decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No.35161 of 2017 (Chandra Bhan Singh vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh and others) and in the event, the aforesaid Petition for Special Leave to Appeal is allowed or any relief is granted by Hon'ble Supreme Court, then the respondents shall extend the relief so granted to all the petitioners of this batch of writ petitions and the concerned respondents shall also pass appropriate orders in the matter of the petitioners in terms of the final decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court including directions for release of Bank Guarantees, if any.
(ii) The benefit of interim order granted by Hon'ble Supreme Court as aforequoted, shall continue to be available to the petitioners till the aforesaid Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No.35161 of 2017 is finally decided by Hon'ble Supreme Court."
9. As the issues raised in the present petition are the same as the issues raised in Writ - C No. 16647 of 2020, this petition is also disposed of in terms of the order dated 17.05.2023 passed in Writ - C No. 16647 of 2020.
Order Date :- 3.1.2024
A. V. Singh
