AFCONS INFRASTRUCTURE LTD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) EARLIER a Division Bench of this Court had dismissed the writ petition by virtue of an order dated 12.09.2013. The writ petition was essentially concerned with the payment of interest by the Revenue to the petitioner on account of petitioners succeeding in its appeal before the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal where the petitioner had earlier been directed to make a pre -deposit of Rs. 55,00,000/ - (Rupees Fifty Five Lakhs) for hearing of the appeal. Although the said amount of Rs. 55,00,000/ - (Rupees Fifty Five Lakhs) has been refunded to the petitioner pursuant to the order passed by the said Tribunal on 04.03.2011, the petitioner was not paid any interest on the refund amount. It is for this reason that the petitioner had approached this Court by way of the present writ petition.

(2.) HOWEVER , the petitioners request for payment of interest on the refund was, as pointed out above, initially rejected by this Court by virtue of the order dated 12.09.2013. Subsequently, the petitioner filed a review petition being R.P. No.565/2013. By virtue of the order dated 14.03.2014, the Division Bench which had passed the earlier order, allowed the review petition and recalled its order dated 12.09.2013. This was so because the said Division Bench was informed that the order dated 04.03.2011 passed by the tribunal had been dispatched to all the parties including the petitioner and two certified copies of the said order were also dispatched and sent to the Commissioner of Central Excise, Delhi -I and were duly served upon him. It is later that the said Commissioner of Central Excise, Delhi -I by a letter dated 05.09.2011 had requested for three more certified copies which were also furnished. The Division Bench also noted that in the additional affidavit filed on behalf of the respondent it was accepted that the order passed by the tribunal had been communicated to the jurisdictional commissioner i.e. the Commissioner of Central Excise, Delhi -I.

(3.) THIS is how the matter is before us. We first need to examine the provisions of section 35FF of the said Act, which reads as under: