Interim refund direction in excise appeal; Calcutta HC left the refund entitlement and Consumer Welfare Fund issue undecided.

An arguable question of law arose on whether the Central Excise and Customs Laws (Amendment) Act, 1991 applied to the refund claim and whether the refund amount should be credited to the Consumer Welfare Fund. The HC did not decide the merits of refund entitlement or statutory credit; it treated the application as an appeal and issued only an interim direction for partial refund against a bank guarantee, leaving the appeal for hearing in due course.

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Issues: No substantive issue was finally decided; the order only dealt with interim refund arrangements and the procedural course of the appeal.

Analysis: The order records that the matter raised an arguable question of law regarding the applicability of the Central Excise and Customs Laws (Amendment) Act, 1991 to refund claims and the destination of the refund amount. Instead of determining the merits of the refund entitlement, the Court treated the application as an appeal and granted an interim direction for partial refund against a bank guarantee, while leaving the appeal to be heard in due course.

Conclusion: No final adjudication on the refund claim or the statutory entitlement to credit the amount to the Consumer Welfare Fund was made in this order.

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