https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=42967 Excise duty collected under a mistake of law was held recoverable under the general law, independent of the statutory refund mechanism, because money retained without authority of law must be returned and the later departmental acceptance of the correct tariff entry confirmed the earlier levy was wrong. The writ petition was not rejected for delay and laches, as the assessee acted on departmental directions, pursued the refund process and the delay was attributable to departmental handling rather than unexplained inaction. Refund was also not denied on unjust enrichment, since the claimant was a public charitable trust and the record did not support any private gain. en-us Fri, 16 Feb 1990 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:14:23 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=42967 Excise duty collected under a mistake of law was held recoverable under the general law, independent of the statutory refund mechanism, because money retained without authority of law must be returned and the later departmental acceptance of the correct tariff entry confirmed the earlier levy was wrong. The writ petition was not rejected for delay and laches, as the assessee acted on departmental directions, pursued the refund process and the delay was attributable to departmental handling rather than unexplained inaction. Refund was also not denied on unjust enrichment, since the claimant was a public charitable trust and the record did not support any private gain. Case-Laws Central Excise Fri, 16 Feb 1990 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=42967