Eagle Distilleries vs State Of AP & Others

R. RAGHUNANDAN RAO, J

The above writ petition had been filed by the petitioner for refund of fees paid to the respondents in relation to his application for expansion of distillery of the petitioner.

When the matter came up for hearing before this Court, it was pointed out that in a similar situation, a Division Bench of this Court, in W.A.Nos.1630 and 1638 of 2018, had directed refund of the fees paid by the applicants, who had sought expansion of capacity of their distilleries. In view of the orders of the Division Bench, this writ petition was allowed by this Court on 18.04.2022.

The learned Government Pleader would submit that the said direction was not by a Division Bench and the original direction was by a learned Single Judge, whose orders are confirmed by the Division Bench.

The present application has been filed for review of the said order on the ground that the orders of the learned Single Judge, as affirmed by the Division Bench in W.A.Nos.1630 and 1638 of 2018, had not only directed refund of fees but also directed payment of interest on the fees, at the rate of 9% per annum. It is submitted that this Court while allowing the writ petition, had inadvertently not included the grant of interest also and the same is an error apparent on the face of the record, which requires to be corrected by way of this review application.

A perusal of the orders in the earlier round of litigation, viz., W.A.Nos.1630 and 1638 of 2018 would show that the writ petitioners therein were granted interest at the rate of 9% per annum on the fees that was to be refunded to them.

In these circumstances, this review application is allowed by amending the order of this Court dated 18.04.2022 in W.P.No.3574 of 2019 to include a direction to the respondents to pay interest at the rate of 9% per annum on the fees that need to be refunded, from the date of application till the date of refund.