Appellate authority may direct licence grant after rejecting the only refusal ground, with no need for repeated remand.

An appellate authority may direct grant of a licence where it has rejected the sole ground on which the application was refused, because such a direction is a natural consequential order and not an improper assumption of the original authority's function. Repeated remand was declined as unjustified on the facts. The departmental appeal was rejected.

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Issues: Whether the appellate authority had power to direct grant of the licence after rejecting the sole ground on which the application had been refused.

Analysis: The appellate authority found no merit in the ground on which the licence application had been rejected. Once the appeal was allowed, a direction to grant the licence was treated as a natural consequential order and not as an impermissible usurpation of the adjudicating authority's function. The Tribunal also declined to accept repeated remand as justified in the circumstances.

Conclusion: The appellate authority was competent to direct grant of the licence, and the departmental appeal was rejected.

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