Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Delta Ltd. & Anr vs Union Of India on 19 April, 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
APPELLATE SIDE
Hon'ble Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash
AND
Hon'ble Justice Partha Sarathi Sen
MAT 253 of 2022
With
CAN 1 of 2022
Delta Ltd. & Anr.
Vs.
Union of India
For the Appellant : Mr. Abhrajit Mitra, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Ghanshyam Pandey, Adv.
Ms. Sneha Singh, Adv.
For the Respondent nos. 1 to 3 : Mr. M.M Verma, Adv.
Mr. Ashok Prasad, Adv.
Last Heard on : 23.03.2023
Judgment on. : 19.04.2023
PARTHA SARATHI SEN, J. : -
1. In this intra-court appeal, the order dated September 07, 2021
as passed in WPA. 3060 of 2020 by the Hon'ble Single Bench of this
Hon'ble High Court in a proceeding under the provisions of Article 226
of the Constitution of India has been assailed. By the impugned order,
Hon'ble Single Bench allowed the writ petition of the writ petitioner
who is the appellant herein and thereby directed the respondent Nos. 2
& 3 of the said writ petition to take steps for releasing the amount of
Rs. 2,57,87,692/- in favour of the writ petitioner but remained silent
with regard to prayer of the writ petitioner for payment of interest in
favour of the writ petitioner. The appellant/writ petitioner felt aggrieved
and thus preferred the instant appeal.
2. We have heard Learned Counsel for the parties at length.
3. Admittedly before the Hon'ble Single Bench, it was averred by the
writ petitioner/appellant herein that a sum of Rs. 2,57,87,692/- has
been unnecessarily withheld by the respondent authorities despite the
fact that the 2470 nos. of bales of jute bag have been consumed by the
respondent no.4 herein as have been supplied by the writ
petitioner/appellant herein.
4. It is evident from the impugned order that before the Hon'ble
Single Bench it was submitted on behalf of the respondent authorities
that is Ministry of Textiles have intimated their counsels that an
amount of Rs. 2,57,87,692/- has been withheld and the same was
directed to be credited in the head of accounts of the writ
petitioner/appellant herein.
5. At the time of hearing of this appeal, It has been submitted by
Mr. Mitra, Learned Advocate for the writ petitioner/appellant that
either before the Hon'ble Single Bench or in this appeal, the respondent
authorities failed to assign any cogent and justifiable reason for
withholding the said sum of Rs.2,57,87,692/- for a considerable length
of time especially when the 2470 nos. of bales of jute bag had been
consumed by respondent no.4 authorities long back. It is thus
submitted by Learned Advocate for the appellant/writ petitioner for
such unexplained delay, the writ petitioner is entitled to interest which
the Hon'ble Single Bench failed to consider.
6. In support of his contention, Mr. Mitra places his reliance upon the
following reported decisions :-
i) Union of India vs. Parmal Singh & Ors. reported in
(2009) 1 SCC 618;
ii) Satinder Singh & Ors vs. Amrao Singh & Ors.
reported in AIR 1961 SC 908;
iii) Dushyant N. Dalal & Anr. Vs. Securities and
Exchange Board of India reported in (2017) 9 SCC
7. Per contra, Learned Advocate for the respondents authorities
submits that the present appellant has miserably failed to make out a
case for getting interest as wrongly claimed. It is submitted that there
was no intention on the part of respondents authorities to deprive the
writ petitioner from his entitlement which is why the sum of
Rs.2,57,87,692/- has been released in favour of the writ petitioner at
the earliest opportunity.
8. On perusal of the entire materials as placed before us, it reveals that
even after consumption of the goods by the respondent no.4 as
supplied by the writ petitioner/appellant herein, there occurred
inordinate delay in releasing the sum of Rs.2,57,87,692/- in favour of
the writ petitioner/appellant basically on account of red-teppism of the
respondent authorities for which the writ petitioner/appellant had to
suffer a lot and even he had to approach the Court of Law more than
once.
9. In our considered view since writ petitioner/appellant has been
deprived of his legitimate dues within a reasonable time for no fault of
his own, he is entitled to get simple interest @ 6% per annum with
effect from September19, 2014 till the date of payment on the
principles of equity.
10. Accordingly, the instant appeal is hereby allowed with a
direction upon the respondent Nos. 2 & 3 to pay simple interest @ 6%
per annum on Rs.2,57,87,692/ with effect from September19, 2014 till
the date of actual payment to the writ petitioner/appellant herein and
such interest is to be paid within a period of three months from the
date of communication of this order.
11. Consequently the order dated September 07, 2021 as passed in
WPA. 3060 of 2020 by the Hon'ble Single Bench is hereby modified to
the extent indicated above.
12. The instant appeal is thus disposed of. All interim applications are
also disposed of.
13. There shall be no order as to cost.
14. Urgent Photostat Certified copy of this judgment, if applied for, be
supplied to the parties expeditiously after complying with all necessary
legal formalities.
I agree.
(Chitta Ranjan Dash, J.) (Partha Sarathi Sen, J.)
