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Judgment
This is a contempt petition wherein it has been alleged that in spite of order dated 25-11-2011 passed in SLP (C) 31795 of 2010, no statutory interest was paid to the Petitioner on Rs. 85 lakhs. It has been submitted by the learned senior counsel appearing for the Respondent that there is no provision with regard to payment of any statutory interest and therefore, no amount is payable to the Petitioner and, hence, no contempt has been committed by the Respondent-State.
It is an admitted fact that a sum of Rs. 85 Lakhs had been paid to the Respondent-State when Bank Guarantee was invoked. It is also an admitted fact that the said amount was repaid to the Petitioner on 23-7-2011. Thus, the aforesaid amount of Rs. 85 Lakhs was retained by the State for more than 8 years without any justifiable reason.
Learned Counsel for the Petitioner has also not disputed the fact that there is no statutory provision with regard to the payment of interest on the said amount.
Looking to the peculiar facts of the case, especially when the Respondent-State had retained such a substantial amount belonging to the Petitioner with it for more than 8 years, in our opinion, it would be just and appropriate to compensate the Petitioner and therefore, we direct that the Respondent-State shall pay an amount of Rs. 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakhs), by way of compensation to the Petitioner within three months from today. With the above observations and directions, the Contempt Petition is disposed of.