Konkan Rly sleepers case: Court refuses to intervene

BANGALORE, Jan 22: The High Court has refused to intervene to set aside an order of the Central Excise Department demanding an advance to...

BANGALORE, Jan 22: The High Court has refused to intervene to set aside an order of the Central Excise Department demanding an advance towards excise duty for supplying sleepers for laying the railway line between Mumbai and Mangalore under the Konkan Railway Corporation.

The petitioner Usman Ali, who represents Stresscrete Private Limited from the Railway Yard at Murudeshwar in Uttara Kannada said that the Konkan Railway floated tenders for supply of the monoblock sleepers for the entire 700-km stretch of Mumbai-Mangalore line. He quoted Rs 406 per sleeper and his quotation was accepted by the Konkan Railway and an agreement was made with the Railways on February 26, 1991.

The Railways required 12.85 lakh sleepers worth Rs 60.3 crore. He had supplied 3.3 lakh sleepers when the Konkan Railway Corporation asked him to pay Rs 1.5 crore as excise duty. He made a representation to Government of India for exempting him from excise duty, which was accepted.

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The Finance Department Under-Secretary wrote aletter to Konkan Railway recommending duty exemption, as the railway project was of public importance. However, the Railways ignored the letter and demanded a deposit of Rs 1.15 crore, he contended. He claimed he could not pay the amount and wanted the court to direct the Railways not to recover the amount or use coercive methods to recover it.

Justice V K Singhal, while disposing of the petition with an observation that the court would not intervene in the matter, directed the petitioner to pre-deposit Rs 75 lakh within four weeks.

In another case, Justice R V Raveendran stayed a move by the Forest Department to take back forest lands allotted through auction to some residents of Hesagala Village in Chikmagalur District.

Petitioners G H Halappa Gowda and Vimala of Hesagala Village said that both had 12.12 acres of land in Survey No 39 of the village. They bought some more land from the Forest Department through an auction on September 25, 1996. However, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Chikmagalur,in a notification ordered their eviction from the land as it fell under the Tatkola Reserve Forest.

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They had challenged the the Department order of April 18 last year evicting them from the land. In a similar petition before the court, Shesha Gowda also contended that the Department had ordered his eviction from his own land which as per the claims of the Department came under the Reserve Forest. The court stayed the order against him too.