Delayed refund interest cannot be denied when authority-created procedural hurdles prevented compliance with refund formalities.

Interest was held payable on a delayed refund arising from an appellate order where the delay was attributable to the authority's own procedural obstruction. The petitioner had communicated the appellate refund direction and sought refund within time, but was unable to complete the online refund form because the authority had created a temporary identity without furnishing the password. The Court treated the physically submitted refund application as the relevant application and held that, under the refund scheme, interest accrued after sixty days from communication of the appellate order until actual refund. The refusal to pay interest was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to interest on the delayed refund of the amount deposited pursuant to the appellate order, despite the respondents' insistence on online refund formalities and the creation of a temporary identity/password issue.

Analysis: The appellate authority had already directed refund, and the petitioner communicated that order and sought refund within time. The respondents themselves had created the temporary identity for deposit, but the password was not furnished and the petitioner was left unable to file the online form as demanded. The Court held that a party cannot be made to suffer for a procedural obstacle created by the authority itself, and that the refund application physically submitted on 09.07.2018 had to be treated as the relevant application for the purpose of interest. Under the refund scheme, once the refund arising from the appellate order was not granted within the statutory period, interest became payable from the expiry of sixty days after communication of the appellate order until actual refund.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to interest on the delayed refund and the respondents' refusal to pay interest was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions succeeded, and the respondents were directed to pay interest on the refunded amount for the period of delay at the notified rate under the refund provisions.

Ratio Decidendi: Where refund becomes due pursuant to an appellate order and the delay is attributable to the authority's own act or omission, interest under the refund provisions cannot be denied on the ground of non-compliance with a procedural requirement that the authority itself made impossible to satisfy.

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