- (1.) Through the present petition filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner prays for issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing advertisement dated 9.8.2012, Annexure P. 14, letter dated 9.8. 2012, Annexure P. 13 and notice dated 20/24th October 1997, Annexure P. 7 under Section 29 of the State Financial Corporation Act, 1951 (in short, "the Act") for sale of unit of the petitioner-company being illegal, arbitrary and against the provisions of Punjab Industrial Incentive Code 1992 (for brevity, "the Code"). Prayer has also been made to direct the respondents to waive penal interest from the date of possession and interest and penal interest to the extent of subsidy sanctioned in May 1995 but disbursed in September 1997 and also to return the possession of the unit alongwith machinery and articles.
(2.) Briefly, the facts as narrated in the petition may be noticed. The petitioner is a private Limited company and is registered under the Companies Act, 1956. It set up a unit for the manufacturing of Oxygen and Nitrogen gases for industrial use in the year 1992 with the financial assistance of Punjab Financial Corporation and Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) to the tune of Rs 75 lacs and Rs 17.50 lacs respectively. A deed of mortgage was executed between the petitioner-company and the respondentFinancial Corporation. The promoters of the company also contributed Rs 46.30 lacs for the setting up of the project in question. The petitioner set up the unit in the industrially backward area of Dera Bassi, District Patiala, wherein the State Government has announced liberal scheme for grant of capital subsidy to the extent of 20% of the total capital investments i. e land, building, plant and machinery. The petitioner did not take into consideration the said capital subsidy in its project report. The committee constituted for considering cases of investment incentive under the Code examined the case of the petitioner and sanctioned incentive of Rs 22,55,400/- in favour of the petitioner to be disbursed under Rule 7.5 of the Code. The petitioner company defaulted in payment of loan from July 1995 during which month it was declared defaulter to the extent of Rs 8 lacs and it was issued a show cause notice under Section 29 of the Act. According to the petitioner, capital subsidy of Rs 22,55,400/- was received direct by PSIDC from the Director of Industries, Punjab on behalf of the petitioner-company. Even after the continuous payments by the petitioner, respondent No. 3-Corporation issued a notice dated 20.10.1997 (Annexure P. 7) to it to make payment of Rs 33.43 lacs as principle amount and Rs 27.07 lacs as interest and expenses by 8.11.1997. The petitioner further asserts that it has paid a sum of Rs 36.86 lacs to the Punjab Financial Corporation and Rs 12.71 lacs to the PSIDC and the default in repayment is only due to compulsions of the market whereby it has been compelled to sell the gas cylinder even below the manufacturing cost due to heavy market recession. The petitioner made a detailed representation dated 8.11.1997 in this regard. After the issuance of legal notice dated 15.7.2012, Annexure P. 12, respondent No. 3 invited the petitioner to participate in the sale proceedings on the date and time mentioned in the advertisement dated 9.8.2012, Annexure P. 14 and to bring the buyer alongwith bank draft for earnest money. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioner is before this Court through the present petition.
(3.) In this case, the petitioner had earlier approached this Court by way of Civil Writ Petition No. 16847 of 1997 challenging the proceedings initiated under Section 29 of the Act by the respondent-Corporation on 20/24.10.1997, in pursuance of which possession had been taken over by the Corporation. The said writ petition was withdrawn wherein following order as reproduced in para 15 of the writ petition was passed:- "After arguing the case for some time Shri Rajesh Garg made a request that the petitioner may be allowed to withdraw the writ petition with liberty to approach the competent authorities of the Punjab Financial Corporation and the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation for re-scheduling of the dues of loans and for grant of other relief. Learned counsel for the respondents- Corporations stated that their clients do not have any objection to the grant of request made by the petitioner. In view of the above, we accept the request of Shri Garg and dismiss the writ petition as withdrawn with liberty to the petitioner to approach the concerned authorities of the Corporation. We further direct that the representation(s), if any, made by the petitioner within 15 days from today, shall be sympathetically considered by the concerned authorities and decided within two months from the date of submission. " ;