Ajit K.Sengupta, J. - (1.) In this application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have prayed for a direction upon the concerned respondent authorities for considering the refund applications contained in Annexure "C" to the writ petition and to grant refund of the countervailing/additional duty of Customs which, according to them, wrongfully and illegally realised.
(2.) They have also asked for interest on the refund to be made by the respondents.
(3.) The case of the petitioners, shortly stated, is that the (first petitioner) petitioner company is the manufacturer of, inter alia, Phthalate plasticizers and for this it requires raw materials such as Industrial alcohol known as 2-Ethyl Hexanol, Iso-Butanol and Iso-Octanol (hereinafter referred to as the said goods). During the period from March, 1979 to February, 1985, the petitioner company imported a number of consignments of the said goods through the Calcutta Port. The petitioner company duly paid the necessary basic and/or auxiliary duties of customs payable in respect of the said consignments of the said goods before obtaining clearance thereof from the respondent authorities. As the petitioners were unaware of the provisions of law, they paid in respect of the said goods additional duty or countervailing duty under Section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act to the tune of Rs. 25,34,965.03 wrongfully demanded by the respondents.;