CASSANOVA DISTILLERIES PVT LTD Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a private limited company, which is engaged in the distilling, blending and bottling of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). It is not in dispute that it has the necessary licences for manufacturing, blending and bottling the IMFL, as also for storing the Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) for the purposes of compounding and bottling such liquor. Exts.P1 to P4 are the licences issued to the petitioner and they are valid till 31.03.2020. The storage capacity of the petitioner was 50,000 bulk litres and the blending capacity was 5000 bulk litres to begin with. Inasmuch as the petitioner found the said limits to be inadequate, it applied for an enhancement of the storage capacity as also blending capacity and through Exts.P5 to P8 orders, the storage capacity and blending capacity were increased to 2,48,200 bulk litres and 20,000 bulk litres respectively. Similarly, the blending storage capacity was enhanced to 50,000 bulk litres.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioner that, while the said enhancement was sanctioned through Exts.P5 to P8 orders, the last of which orders was dated 15.12.2012, after more than three years, the petitioner was served with Ext.P9 order dated 02.03.3016, which indicated that the respondents had suo motu cancelled the earlier orders that had sanctioned the enhanced capacity for the various activities of the petitioner. It is impugning Ext.P9 that the present Writ petition has been filed, inter alia, on the contention that the petitioner was not afforded an opportunity of hearing before Ext.P9 order was passed cancelling Exts. P5 to P8 orders that had earlier been passed in favour of the petitioner.

(3.) A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the 1 st respondent, wherein at paragraph 8, the stand taken in justification of Ext.P9 order is as follows: