Case: State of Madhya Pradesh &amp; Others Vs. M/s. Nathabhai Desaibhai Patel

1. This is an appeal by Certificate from the decision of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. The defendant in the suit is the appellant herein. The plaintiff therein is the respondent. The plaintiff claimed a sum of Rs. 89,as being the principal and interest of the amount illegally realised from him on the ground that amount collected by him asfrom his customers is payable to the Government. The principal amount claimed is Rs. 62,

Reasoning: 4. In this Court, the counsel for thedid not context the correctness of the decision of the High Court on the question of limitation. They only contention urged by him was that the High Court erred in awarding interest on the principal amount claimed from the date of the suit. The question, whether interest should be awarded on the principal amount claimed from the date of the suit, was within the discretion of the Court. In our opinion, the High Court rightly exercised that discretion. It disallowed the interest claimed by theup till the date of the suit. Coming to the question of interest, subsequent to the date of institution of the suit, it was found that the appellant had unlawfully withheld the amount due to the respondent even after coming to know that the collection made was an illegal one. Before instituting the suit, the respondent had issued a notice to the appellant, calling upon the appellant to pay the money illegally collected from it; but despite that notice, the appellant failed to pay back the amount illegally collected from the respondent. That being so, in our opinion, the High Court was justified in awarding interest on the principal amount from the date of the suit.