TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2011 (8) TMI 1392
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....he Appellant herein and while doing so, affirmed the findings and conclusions arrived at by the learned Single Judge. A writ petition was filed by the respondents herein before the Calcutta High Court which was registered as Writ Petition No. 1279 of 2005. In the said writ petition the respondents challenged the legality of the e-auction scheme introduced by the Union of India and adopted by the Appellant herein. In the said writ petition, an interim order was also passed on 08.08.2005 with regard to the liability for payment of price for purchasing coals under e-auction scheme and for furnishing bank guarantee in connection thereof. During the pendency of the said writ petition in the High Court, some other writ petitions involving s....
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.....03.2010. By the said order the High Court followed the decision of this Court in Ashoka Smokeless Coal India (P) Ltd. (supra) and passed orders and certain directions. The respondents were directed to furnish all documents to the counsel for coal company showing actual payments made by the respective applicants during the period from May, 2005 to December, 2006 and the difference between the amount paid and the amount notified by April 30, 2010. Another direction which was passed was that the documents furnished shall be verified by the concerned coal companies and in case of any difference, the parties to deliberate upon the matter so as to enable them to come to an accepted solution. The legality of the aforesaid judgment and order ca....
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.... companies dealing with coal. Some of those petitions were transferred to this Court pursuant to orders of this Court, the leading case being Ashoka Smokeless Coal India (P) Ltd. (supra) which was taken up for consideration along with connected matters and the same were disposed of by this Court and the said decision is now reported in (2007) 2 SCC 640. By the aforesaid judgment, this Court has upheld the challenge of the writ petitioners to the legality of the scheme of e-auction. The aforesaid prayer of the writ petitioners was accepted and this Court held that the scheme of e-auction was invalid and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and, therefore, it was declared to be ultra vires to the Constitution and this Court qu....
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....rayer but has disposed of the entire writ petition by its judgment and order dated 25.03.2010. Consequently, it must also be held that when the entire scheme is set at naught by this Court, whatever action has been taken following the said e-auction by the coal company has also been declared to be illegal and, therefore, the coal company has become liable to refund the entire money which was collected in excess of the notified price. That is the consequence of quashing of the scheme and the same came to be reiterated by this Court while contempt petitions were filed and were disposed of. Therefore, it cannot be said that the effect of the decision of Ashoka Smokeless Coal India (P) Ltd. (supra) would be restricted only to those cases which ....
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....ticularly, in view of the fact that the respondents did not have any notice of such a plea taken for the first time at argument stage. In the present case, it is a case of refund of price recovered by the appellant in excess and not of any kind of payment of tax or duty. Besides, the appellant has already refunded such excess amount realised to many other parties without raising any such plea. If anything is done by a party in violation of the law, consequence has to follow and they are bound to return the money to the parties from whom excess amount has been realised. There is also no document placed on record in support of any such plea. Bald allegation of this nature cannot be accepted particularly when no such plea has been raised in....