VENAD TOURIST COMPLEX Vs. ASST EXCISE COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is holding an FL 3 licence from 1989 onwards and the licence was valid till 31.3.2002. However petitioner did not renew the licence for the financial year 2002-2003 on 1.4.2002 on account of labour strike which was intimated to the respondents. Thereafter on 16.9.2002, fresh application for renewal of licence was submitted by the petitioner. This is declined by the Commissioner and confirmed by the Secretary to Government for the reason that petitioners licence had become defunct on account of non renewal of licence in the beginning of the financial year 2002-2003. However according to the petitioner, the financial year for which renewal is sought is still not over and the application in the financial year is maintainable in petitioners case. R.14 of the Foreign Liquor Rules providing for issue of licence is as follows.

(2.) All that the deleted proviso provided was that if a defunct licence was to be renewed, an additional rental was payable at the rate of Rs. 25,000/- for each year of defunction. The counsel for the petitioner brought to my notice, the decision of this court in Johny v. Excise Inspector reported in ( 1999 (2) KLT 536 ) whereunder this court has held that the additional rent is payable only when there is a minimum defunction for one year. Consequently the court held that no additional fee is payable for renewal of licence during a financial year. The corollary of this Rule and the interpretation made by this court is that a licence can be renewed at any time during a financial year and in order to call a licence defunct, there should be a minimum break in business for one year. In this particular case, the petitioner applied for renewal of licence for 2002-2003 in the middle of the financial year and the petitioner had valid licence for the immediate preceeding year ie., 2001-2002. Since there was no break of one year, petitioners licence cannot be said to be defunct so far. Petitioners licence would have become defunct if the petitioner had not applied for renewal of licence upto 31.3.2003. The concept of Defunct Licence is no longer available in the Foreign Liquor Rules after the deletion of proviso to R.14. However, since R.13A which provides for renewal of licence does not make it compulsory that the renewal should be from the beginning of the financial year, it has to be assumed particularly in the light of R.14 that the renewal is possible from year to year and a licence can be renewed at any time during a financial year. However, if a licence is not renewed for whole of a financial year, then of course renewal is not possible at all because unless the licence is kept renewed from year to year, it becomes invalid on the expiry of the financial year in which it was renewed last. Therefore renewal is not possible only after the expiry of one whole financial year. The provision for levy of additional rent of Rs. 25,000/- for renewal of licence was for renewal after expiry of one year which is no longer available by virtue of abolition of proviso to R.14 with effect from 20.2.2002.

(3.) Therefore the interpretation given to the deleted proviso by the respondents is not correct particularly in view of the decision of this court referred above. In the circumstances, I hold that the petitioners licence is not defunct and petitioner is entitled to renewal of licence on full payment of licence fee under the terms of R.14 of the Foreign Liquor Rules, without necessity of payment of additional rent. Exts.P7 and P10 are quashed and the O.P. is allowed directing the respondents to renew the licence of the petitioner for 2002-2003 after complying with the required formalities.