JAGATJIT INDUSTRIES LIMITED Vs. COLLECTOR OF EXCISE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is directed against the order passed by the Collector rejecting the application for renewal of excise (L-l) license granted to the petitioner-Company under the Punjab Excise Act, 1914, as extended to the territory of Delhi for the wholesale vend of Indian made Foreign Liquor Products (IMFL Products) in the territory of Delhi.

(2.) The petitioner-Company has been supplying IMFL products in the territory of Delhi for many years. The petitioner-Company was granted a license for wholesale vend (L-l) license in the year 1991-92. Under the prov isions of the Excise Laws as applicable to the facts and circumstances of the present case the license for wholesale vend is granted for a period of one year to berenewed annually. The license granted to the petitioners was renewed annually in the years 1993-94 and 1994-95. On 28.4.1995 the petitioner-Company submitted its application for renewal of the wholesale vend excise license for the year 1995-96 in accordance with the excise policy and regulations applicable to the territory of Delhi.

(3.) Mr. Anil Dewan, appearing for the petitioner-Company submitted before us that similar applications for renewal were filed by other manufacturers of IMFL product on or about the same time when the petitioner-Company submitted its application for renewal. It is submitted that although the applications of other manufacturers for renewal of their licenses were decided in a course of 4 to II days from the date of their application and the said other applicants were also given time to remove the -deficiencies which the Collector found in their applications for renewal, but no such decision was taken for renewal of license of the petitioner company and the same was kept pending without any reason.