SANDEEP MEHTA,J. - (1.) These two writ petitions involved common question of law and are thus being decided together by this single order.
(2.) The petitioners herein, applied for grant of IMFL and beer retail wine licenses in furtherance of notification dated 19.02.2010. The licenses were being offered for the remaining period of the financial / license year 2009-2010 in the municipal limits of Sri Ganganagar.
(3.) The petitioner Shri Rakesh Kumar Sidana was selected for Zone No.2, Shop No.4 and the petitioner Ramesh Kumar was selected for Zone No.4. Both the petitioners were asked to deposit license fee to the tune of Rs. 4,00,000/-; earnest money to the tune of Rs. 40,000/- and application fee to the tune of Rs. 4,000/-. It appears that the process of allocation met a road block of litigation in form of a writ petition filed before this Court whereupon the notice to deposit the requisite fee was issued to each of the petitioners as late as on 30.03.2010. It may be noted here that by virtue of the fact that the licenses were offered only for the remainder for the financial year 2009-2010, the effective period for trading was of one day only i.e. 31.03.2010. Despite being conscious of that fact, the petitioners deposited the requisite fees on 30.03.2010, executed the indemnity bond etc. and the licenses were duly issued to them. Both the petitioners, claim that they were never issued RSBCL code and were not provided the requisite stock of liquor on 31.03.2010 and thus, they could not do any business in furtherance of the licenses allotted to them by the Excise Department. Both the petitioners submitted applications to this effect to the District Collector, Sri Ganganagar on 08.12.2010 claiming reimbursement of the license fee to the tune of Rs. 4,00,000/- deposited by them while applying for the shops in question. The District Collector, Sri Ganganagar, forwarded these applications to the District Excise Officer, Sri Ganganagar. However, upon failing to receive any response from the DEO, Sri Ganganagar the petitioners served notice for demand of justice and thereafter, filed these writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a direction to the respondents to reimburse the license fees deposited by them.;