TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (5) TMI 468
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....isted before this Bench by the Registry in view of the urgency expressed therein. 2. The petition has been heard by way of video conferencing. 3. It is pertinent to mention that present public interest litigation has been filed against as many as eighty respondents primarily seeking to convert the Consumer Welfare Fund Bill, 2010 into the Consumer Welfare Fund Rules, 2010 and for transfer of the unclaimed or unpaid amounts of unidentifiable consumers lying with respondents to Consumer Welfare Fund or a Suspense Account as well as for refund of the same and to disburse Rs. 5 crores out of the said amount to senior resident doctors of Safdarjung Hospital and to donate an additional sum of Rs. 5 crores to Sardarjung Hospital to fight the cor....
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....nment to credit all public money into the account of Consumer Welfare Fund which is not meant for Consolidated Fund of India; (f) Issue writ of mandamus directing the appropriate government to enact Consumer Welfare Fund Act, 2010 in terms of clause (k) of sub-section (1) of Section 19 (Powers and functions of Central Authority to advise the Ministries and Departments of the Central and State Governments on consumer welfare measures) of the CPA, 2019; (g) Issue writ of mandamus directing respondents to file their responses with regard to total unclaimed amount of consumers amount which is lying with them till today in the absence of any statute; (h) Issue writ of mandamus directing respondents to file a detailed sheet as to how much c....
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.... Petitioner also strongly feels that legislative void to deal with the aspects highlighted in the petition, should persuade us to accept the petition. He profusely relies upon several vital Articles of the Constitution of India, including but not limited to Articles 14, 19 and 21. In addition to the above, the preamble of the Constitution is also cited in an effort to lay emphasis on the importance of the issue sought to be canvassed in the petition. 6. However, we feel that reliance on the provisions of the Constitution alone cannot justify the maintainability of a petition. In our view, a writ petition is not the correct remedy to address the grievance of the petitioner. We cannot assume the role of the Legislature and convert a 'Bill' ....
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..... Further, the judgment in Mafatlal Industries Ltd. and Others (supra) has no application to the facts of the present case as it pertains to certain categories of refund only and it is not the case of the petitioner that the said judgment has been violated by the respondents in any manner whatsoever. The Central Excise and Salt Act, 1944 was amended in 1991 to enable the Central Government to create a Consumer Welfare Fund (CWF) where the money which is not refundable to the manufacturers, etc. is being credited. Likewise, after the advent of GST laws, Consumer Welfare Fund has been setup under section 57 of the CGST Act, 2017. The Consumer Welfare Fund Rules were framed and notified in the Gazette of India in 1992, which have been incorpo....
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....asis for Petitioner's assumption that the funds in the hands of the institutions and the Government department are in jeopardy. Secondly, in our view, Banks, Insurances Companies, Post offices etc are all regulated and governed by their own set of rules. The Reserve bank of India and the provisions under the Banking Regulation Act would govern the bank and likewise IRDA would have the control over the Insurance Companies and that would take care of the unclaimed amounts of the policy holders. Further, the apprehension of misuse of unclaimed and unpaid refund as well as amounts lying with the respondents is totally misconceived as the said sums are duly accounted for in the account books of respondents and the said accounts are subject to au....