Final refund relief cannot be reopened by fresh notices, and delayed refund carries statutory interest.

A refund order that has been finally allowed with consequential relief, and not challenged, cannot be reopened through fresh show cause notices to re-adjudicate the same issue. The department is required to implement the earlier appellate order and sanction the refund accordingly. Where the refund is delayed, interest becomes payable from the statutory period after filing of the refund claim until actual payment. The document also notes that the rejected balance amount must be refunded once the earlier allowance of the claim is respected and the subsequent rejection is found unsustainable.

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Issues: (i) Whether the refund claim could be re-opened and denied by issuing show cause notices after the Tribunal had already allowed the refund with consequential relief in the earlier round. (ii) Whether the appellant was entitled to refund of the rejected amount and interest on delayed refund.

Issue (i): Whether the refund claim could be re-opened and denied by issuing show cause notices after the Tribunal had already allowed the refund with consequential relief in the earlier round.

Analysis: The earlier appellate order had finally set aside the rejection of the refund claims and had allowed the appeals with consequential relief. In the absence of any challenge to that order, the proper course for the department was to comply with it and sanction the refund suo motu. Re-issuance of show cause notices to re-adjudicate the settled refund issue was impermissible.

Conclusion: The re-adjudication and the show cause notices were held to be illegal, and the rejection of refund and denial of interest were set aside.

Issue (ii): Whether the appellant was entitled to refund of the rejected amount and interest on delayed refund.

Analysis: Once the refund claim stood allowed in the earlier round and the impugned rejection was found unsustainable, the remaining rejected amount was required to be refunded. The appellant's entitlement to interest followed from the delayed sanction of refund, with interest becoming payable after three months from the date of filing the refund claim till realization.

Conclusion: The appellant was held entitled to the refund of the rejected amount and to interest on delayed refund.

Final Conclusion: The appeals succeeded, the rejection of refund and denial of interest were annulled, and the department was directed to implement the earlier appellate order and the present order within the stipulated time.

Ratio Decidendi: Once a refund order allowing relief with consequential benefits attains finality and is not challenged, the department cannot re-open the matter through fresh show cause notices, and delayed refund carries interest from the date prescribed by law until payment.

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