GAYCO PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. A A KHWAJA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants in this appeal andL.P.A. No. 143 of 1970 under clause 10 of the Letters Patent werepetitioners in two writ petitions filed by them under Article 226 ofthe Constitution which have been dismissed by a learned Single Judge.

(2.) Gayco Private Limited is appellant No. 1 and will hereafter be described as the company while the other two appellants Shri B. R. Chawlaand Shri Vinod Chawla are the Chairman and General Manager respectively of the company. The appellant Gayco Private Limited holds alicence for whole-sale and retail sale vendor of foreign liquor to thetrade only in Form L-l. The licence is issued under the Delhi LiquorLicence Rules, the authority competent to grant the licence being theLt. Governor who has been impleaded as respondent No. 2 while theother two respondents are Shri A. A. Khwaja, Collector of Excise (respondent No. 1) and Delhi Administration (respondent No. 3).

(3.) Between 7-6-1970 and 8-6-1970, the houses and godowns of the company at Basti Harphool Singh and Sadar Thana Road were searched by Shri N. K. Jain, Excise Inspector and it was found that theactual stock of Whisky was short by one and one-quarter bottles. Fromthe godown in Sadar Thana Road, four wooden cases were also foundcontaining four small drums of rectified spirit. The total contents filled180 bottles. Although the raid was alleged to have taken place on twodifferent dates, actually it is the continuous range of the two raids, thattook place one after the other. The raid was organised under thesupervision of the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Crime) on thereport of the Excise Inspector Shri N. K. Jain. On 10-6-1970 the Lt.Governor passed the following order :-