TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1984 (11) TMI 63
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....sion to condemn and prohibit this-practice of entertaining oral applications under art. 226 and passing interim orders thereon. In several other cases, Siliguri Municipality v. Amalendu Das [1984] 2 SCC 436; [1984] 146 ITR 624 (SC), Titaghur Paper Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Orissa [1983] 2 SCC 433; [1983] 142 ITR 663 (SC), Union of India v. Oswal Woollen Mills Ltd. [1984]2 SCC 646; [1985] 154 ITR 135 and Union of India v. Jain Shudh Vanaspati Ltd. (CA No. 11450 of 1983), this court was forced to point out how wrong it was to make interim orders so soon as an application was bat presented, when a second thought (or a second's thought) would expose the impairment of the public interest and often enough the existence of suitable alternative remedy. Despite the fact that we have set our face against interfering with interim orders passed by the High Courts and made it practically a rigid rule not to so interfere, we were constrained to interfere in those cases. In Siliguri Municipality v. Amalendu Das [1984] 2 SCC 436; [1984] 146 ITR 624 (SC), A.P. Sen and M.P. Thakkar JJ. had to deal with an interlocutory order passed by the Calcutta High Court restraining the Siliguri Municipality f....
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....municipality. It seems that these serious ramifications of the matter were lost sight of while making the impugned order." In Titaghur Paper Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Orissa [1983] 2 SCC 433; [1983] 142 ITR 663 (SC), A.P. Sen, E. S. Venkataramiah and R.B. Misra JJ. held that where the statute itself provided the petitioners with an efficacious alternative remedy by way of an appeal to the prescribed authority, second appeal to the Tribunal and thereafter to have the case stated to the High Court, it was not for the High Court to exercise its, extraordinary jurisdiction under art. 226 of the Constitution ignoring, as it were, the complete statutory machinery. That it has become necessary, even now, for us to repeat this admonition, is indeed a matter of tragic concern to us. Article 226 is not meant to short-circuit or circumvent statutory procedures. It is only where statutory remedies are entirely ill-suited to meet the demands of extraordinary situations as, for instance, where the very vires of the statute is in question or where private or public wrongs are so inextricably mixed up and the prevention of public injury and the vindication of public justice require it that recou....
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....re even stronger grounds of public interest, an ex parte interim order will not be justified. The only appropriate order to make in such cases is to issue notice to the respondents and make it returnable within a short period. This should particularly be so where the offices of the principal respondents and relevant records lie outside the ordinary jurisdiction of the court. To grant interim relief straight-away and leave it to the respondents to move the court to vacate the interim order may jeopardise the public interest. It is notorious how if an interim order is once made by a court, parties employ every device and tactic to ward off the final hearing of the application. It is, therefore, necessary for the courts to be circumspect in the matter of granting interim relief, more particularly so where the interim relief is directed against orders or actions of public officials acting in discharge of their public duty and in exercise of statutory powers. On the facts and circumstances of the present case, we are satisfied that no interim relief should have been granted by the High Court in the terms in which it was done. " We repeat and deprecate the practice of granting interim o....
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....int of precariousness consequent upon interim orders made by courts. In fact, instances have come to our knowledge where Governments have been forced to explore further sources for raising revenue, sources which they would rather well leave alone in the public interest, because of the stays granted by courts. We have come across cases where an entire service is left in a state of flutter and unrest because of interim orders passed by courts, leaving the work they are supposed to do in a state of suspended animation. We have come across cases where buses and lorries are being run under orders of court though they were either denied permits or their permits had been cancelled or suspended by the transport authorities. We have come across cases where liquor shops are being run under interim orders of court. We have come across cases where the collection of monthly rentals payable by excise contractors has been stayed with the result that at the end of the year, the contractor has paid nothing but made his profits from the shop and walked out. We have come across cases where dealers in foodgrains and essential commodities have been allowed to take back the stocks seized from them as if....
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....n. Even so when a similar matter giving rise to the present appeal came up again, the same learned judge whose order had been reversed earlier, granted a non-speaking interlocutory order of the aforesaid nature. This order was in turn confirmed by a Division Bench without a speaking order articulating reasons for granting a stay when the earlier Bench had vacated the stay. We mean no disrespect to the High Court in emphasizing the necessity for self-imposed discipline in such matters in obeisance to such weighty institutional considerations like the need to maintain decorum and comity. So also we mean no disrespect to the High Court in stressing the need for self-discipline on the part of the High Court in passing interim orders without entering into the question of amplitude and width of the powers of the High Court to grant interim relief. The main purpose of passing an interim order is to evolve a workable formula or a workable arrangement to the extent called for by the demands of the situation keeping in mind the presumption regarding the constitutionality of the legislation and the vulnerability of the challenge, only in order that no irreparable injury is occasioned. The cou....
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....e to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, were exempt from a certain percentage of excise duty to the extent that the manufacturers had not availed themselves of the exemption granted under certain other earlier notifications. The Department was of the view that the company was not entitled to the exemption as it had cleared the goods earlier without paying central excise duty, but on furnishing bank guarantees under various interim orders of courts. The company claimed the benefit of the exemption to the tune of Rs. 6.05 crores and filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court and sought an interim order restraining the central excise authorities from the levy and collection of excise duty. The learned single judge took the view that a prima facie case had been made out in favour of the company and by an interim order allowed the benefit of the exemption to the tune of rupees two crores ninety-three lakhs and eighty-five thousand for which amount the company was directed to furnish a bank guarantee, that is to say, the goods were directed to be released on the bank guarantee being furnished. An appeal was preferred by the Assistant Collector of Central Excise under clause 10....