IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE THIRTY FIRST DAY OF MARCH TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH WRIT PETITION No.5839 of 2003 Between: 1 Smt. I.Ramanamma, W/o.I.Venkateswarlu, D.No.1-77, Railway Station Area, Renigunta, Chittor Dist., 2 Sri P.Chandraiah, S/o.P.Subrahmanyam Puttur, Chittoor Dist., ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 The Commissioner of Prohibition & Excise, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Nampally, Hyderabad. 2 The Deputy Commissioner of Prohibition & Exise Ananthapur, Anantapur Dist., 3 The Asst., Commissioner of Prohibition & Excise, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Chittoor, Chittoor Dist., 4 The Prohibition & Excise Superintendent, Chittoor, Chittoor Dist., .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court may be pleased to issue a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in withholding the refund of proportionate licence fee for the period from 16.4.1998 to 22.6.1998 during the closure of the business on account of illegal cancellation of licences as held by this Hon'ble Court as illegal and arbitrary and consequently direct the respondents to refund the proportionate licence fee for the said period of closure of the petitioners IL-24 business. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.N.PRAMOD Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR PROHIBITION & EXCISE The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH WRIT PETITION No.5839 of 2003 ORDER: It is brought to my notice that similar questions relating to refund of proportionate licence fee for the period from 16-04-1998 to 22-06-1998 during the closure of business on account of illegal cancellation of licences were decided by this Court in W.P.No.16839 of 1997, dated 03-11-2000 and W.P.No.31879 of 2001, dated 13-03-2001, holding that the petitioners therein could not run shops for the said period for their no fault and as the respondents could not supply stocks of the liquor to the petitioners for the said period, the petitioners are entitled for proportionate remission for the said period. It is not in dispute that the petitioners’ shops were cancelled among thirty licences on 16-04-1998 and questioning the said cancellation order, the petitioners filed W.P.Nos.11043 of 1998 and 11226 of 1998 before this Court and obtained interim suspension on 21-04-1998. It is not in dispute that the petitioners licences were cancelled on 16-04-1998 and they were continued to carry business from 20-06-1998 onwards and the writ petitions filed by the petitioners were allowed. Therefore, there cannot be any dispute that the petitioners are entitled for refund of licence fee from 16-04-1998 to 20- 06-1998. Following the orders of this court in W.P.No.16839 of 1997, dated 03-11-2000 and W.P.No.31879 of 2001, dated 13-03-2001, the writ petition is allowed directing the respondents to grant remission of licence fee for the period from 16-04-1998 to 20-06-1998, after adjusting dues, if any, payable by the petitioners, within a period of four months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. There shall be no order as to costs. ___________ 31-03-2008 Prv ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{ANURADHA}