CESC LIMITED Vs. WEST BENGAL POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant is aggrieved by the dismissal of its writ petition by which it had challenged two notices issued by the first respondent requiring the appellant to show-cause as to why criminal proceedings should not be launched against the officers of the appellant under the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977 (the said Act ).

(2.) THE appellant says that it would be evident from the affidavit used by the first respondent in the trial Court that the notices of November 5, 1986 and November 11, 1986 were issued with ulterior motive as the first respondent had unhesitatingly acknowledged that the notices were issued to realise payment from the appellant. The appellant contends that the notices are without basis and inasmuch as subsequent to the issuance of the notices the first respondent's principal demand on account of cess had been paid, the notices had lost all force and should have been quashed as infructuous by the learned Single Judge. The appellant argues that the notices were inherently bad and could not have been issued at all.

(3.) THE facts may be somewhat irrelevant in the context, but the bare essentials must be noticed to put the matter in perspective. The appellant uses water drawn from the river at two of its units in Mulajore and New cossipore. The appellant says that at the time that the notices were issued, there was a genuine dispute as to whether the cess would be payable on the water drawn from a river by an industry without taking into account the water returned to the river after cleansing it at the post-use stage. The appellant submits that at the relevant time the appellant bona fide contended that the cess was payable only on the difference between the quantum of water drawn and the quantum of water returned to the source and that it had filed returns accordingly. It is urged that such a contention was not outlandish as other industries had taken the same stand and it required an order passed by the Supreme Court for the matter to be resolved that the water drawn by an industry would be the water consumed by the industry for the purpose of ascertaining the cess payable.