1 12.wp.30-11 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO.30 OF 2011 Mr.Vikrant Ramesh Chandwadkar. ..Petitioner. Vs. The State of Maharashtra. ..Respondent. .......... Mr.S.R. Chitnis, Senior Advocate i/b. Mr.Ashish Sawant, Advocate for the Petitioner. Ms.S.V. Gajare, A.P.P. for the State. .......... CORAM : A.M. KHANWILKAR AND A.R. JOSHI, JJ. DATED : 17TH JANUARY, 2011. P.C. 1. The grievance of the Petitioner in this petition is primarily that even though the Petitioner has applied for renewal of his license No.CPN/15/97 before expiry thereof, as back as in the year 2008, no decision has been taken by the Appropriate Authority so far. 2. However, as it is a case of renewal of license which was already operating in favour of the Petitioner, we fail to understand as to how the Appropriate Authority can keep the said application undecided and as a consequence allow the license period to expire. Ordinarily, if it is a case of application for renewal of license, the same should be decided as expeditiously as possible and in any case before the date of expiry of the original license period. Even, in case, there is any difficulty in doing PPD 2 12.wp.30-11 so, by no stretch of imagination we can countenance the attitude of the Appropriate Authority of keeping the application for renewal of license undecided for over three years, as in this case. 3. Learned A.P.P. submits that she has no instructions in the matter. 4. We would assume that the Appropriate Authority has taken some decision on the application for renewal of license filed by the Petitioner. If so, it ought to have been communicated to the Petitioner with promptitude. Be that as it may, we dispose of this Petition with directions to the Appropriate Authority to finally decide the application for renewal of license filed by the Petitioner, before expiry of the term of original license period, as expeditiously as possible and in any case not later than eight weeks from today, if already not decided. Besides, the decision so taken be communicated to the Petitioner within the same time. In case, some decision has already been taken on the said application for renewal of license, it be communicated to the Petitioner within two weeks from today. 5. Petition is disposed of on the above terms. (A. R. JOSHI, J.) (A. M. KHANWILKAR, J.)