RITESH NARULA Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petitioner is questioning the common order of the Collectors of Excise, Kolkata (North) and Kolkata (South) dated June 1st 2006, which is :

(2.) Provisions of the Bengal Excise Act, 1909, Sections 85 and 86, empowered the State Government to make rules to carry out the objects of that Act and also for regulating the manufacture, supply or storage of any intoxicant, and in particular for regulating the establishment, inspection, supervision, management and control of any place for the manufacture, supply or storage of any intoxicant. In exercise of that power it made the West Bengal Excise (Foreign Liquor) Rules, 1998. Provisions in Rule 20 provide that persons desirous of obtaining licences to establish private warehouses for the deposit and storage of foreign liquor without payment of duty or fee shall be required to apply to the collector concerned, who shall not grant the licence without the previous order of the excise commissioner ; those in Rule 23 provide that the collector shall employ such officer and establishment as the commissioner may direct to the charge of a private warehouse. They also cast an obligation on the licensee of the warehouse to pay to the Government in the manner indicated therein. The cost of officer and establishment is to be computed on the basis of the average of the pay (including special pay, if any) of officers and establishment, the contribution towards leave salary and pension and the compensatory allowance. The previous rules and orders to the extent they were inconsistent with the 1998 Rules were repealed by them.

(3.) In terms of the provisions in Rules 21 & 22 of 601 -SR dated March 30th, 1915 the excise commissioner under his order dated December 5th, 1991 issued general guidelines for determining the size of the excise establishment to be posted in private warehouses for the deposit and storage of spirit other than country spirit without payment of duty. By those guidelines the licensed bonded units working under the Bengal Excise Act, 1909 were classified as half-bond and full-bond. It was said that units of applicants insisting on working whole time on all weekdays should be considered full- bond, and that the half-bond units would work three days in a week, and that after giving a month's notice to the licensees concerned, the licensing authority would be empowered to convert the half-bond units to full-bond ones "if in view of the volume of transaction of business revenue collection in the manufactories/warehouses during the preceding twelve months justify such conversion as per statement of general standards given below or if the licensing authority considers such conversion desirable for any administrative reason including receipt of representation to the effect from the licenses concerned."