- (1.) This Appeal calls into question a brief Judgment passed on 21.7.2005 by the Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala in W.A. No. 910 of 2000 reversing the detailed Judgment of the learned Single Judge. The question that has been raised pertains to the Appellant's entitlement to pay proportionate annual rental for the year 1999-2000, instead of full annual fee of Rs. 13 lakhs which was applicable for that year in respect of an FL3 licence granted to her.
(2.) The Division Bench took note of Rule 14 of the Foreign Liquor Rules which reads thus: "If any of the licences referred to in Rule 13 is granted in the course of a financial year, the full annual fee shall be paid and the licence shall expire at the end of the financial year". On the reading of the said Rule, the Division Bench opined that it was not permissible for any licensee to claim only proportionate payment on the predication that it had been disabled from utilizing the licence for the full period because of third party intervention. Accepting the Appeal, the Appellant was permitted to pay the balance of the entire fee after adjusting the sum already paid, within three weeks, in which event the Respondent would not be permitted to claim interest on belated payments. It is the admitted case that in order to avail of this indulgence and advantage the balance amount has been duly paid. However, the legality of the demand to pay the fee for the entire year, despite the truncated period of user by the Appellant for no fault ascribable to her is what has been brought into question before us.
(3.) We have commented on the brevity of the impugned Judgment for the reason that the learned Single Judge of the Kerala High Court in O.P. No. 18145 of 1994 had, in its detailed Judgment, considered various legal aspects including the topicality of the maxim 'Actus curiae neminem gravabit', that an act of Court prejudices no one, as well as the pronouncement of this Court in R.Vijaykumar v. Commissioner of Excise, 1993 4 Scale 386, which indubitably held the field and was facially in favour of the Appellant. It seems to us that the attention of the Division Bench was not drawn to this binding precedent, since otherwise its conclusion would in all likelihood have been diametrically different.;