JUDGMENT :

Soumitra Saikia, J.

1. The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioners challenging the order-in-original no. 28/R/11B/DIV/DIB/ACD/18-19 dated 31.12.2018 passed by Deputy Commissioner, Central GST Division, Dibrugarh, Assam, whereby the claim of petitioners for interest delayed refund of Central Excise duty paid as per Notification No. 33/99-"CE dated 08.07.1999 has been rejected in contravention to the law laid down in the Judgment of this Hon'ble Court rendered in the case of "Amalgamated Plantations Limited", wherein this court held that the interest on delayed refund is payable by the Central Excise department as per Notification No. 32/99-CE and 33/99-CE dated:-08.07.1999.

2. The facts necessary and essential in the present proceedings are that the petitioner no. 1 company is incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 having its registered office at "VRAJ", 62/13, Promotesh Baruah, Sarani, Kolkata-700019, West Bengal. The petitioner No. 2 is the Muttuck Tea Estate which used to be under the ownership of the M/S. Hindustan Lever Limited and thereafter under M/S. Rossell Industries Limited. Ultimately, the Tea Estate came to be under the ownership of the petitioner no. 1 company. Both the petitioners are represented in the present proceedings by Mr. Ashok Sanghvi, Assistant General Manager-Finance & Taxation of the petitioner No. 1 company.

3. The pleaded case of the petitioner is that the Government of India by the 'North East Industrial Policy' (NEIP), 1997 announced a new package of fiscal incentives and other concessions for the North East region by the said policy. The various incentives announced and promised for the new Industrial Units as well as the Industrial Units undergoing substantial expansions were with effect from 01.04.1997. As per the said Notification No. 33/99-CE dated:-08.07.1999 all Industrial Units existing before 24.12.1997 and which undertake substantial expansion by way of increase in installed capacity by not less than 25% on or after 24.12.1997 were eligible for all the exemptions contained in the said Notification. It was provided by the said Notification that for the purposes of claiming the exemptions, the manufacturers/Industries shall submit statement of duty paid from the current account to the Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner Central Excise by the 7th of the following month and the amount claimed, after due verification, shall be refunded by the Central Excise department by the 15th of the next month.

4. The petitioner company in terms of the said Notifications undertook substantial expansion to the extent of 25% in the Tea Estate, namely, Muttuck Tea Estate (petitioner No. 2) and returns were filed in the form of RT/12 for the month of July 1999 to March 2003 showing that the duty paid as per the Notification No. 33/99-CE. However, in the year 2001 because of a fire which broke out in the Head Office of Company situated in Doom Dooma in the State of Assam, the relevant records and the correspondences of the company including documents substantiating the substantial expansion were all gutted in the fire. It is stated that the said incident was officially communicated to the Superintendent of Central Excise and Customs.

5. The refund of excise duty was claimed for the petitioner No. 2, for the periods from July 1999 to March 2003. The application seeking refund was duly supported by the inventory of machines and equipments for the pre and the post expansion periods duly certified by a Chartered Engineer showing the substantial expansions made. The claims of the refund by the petitioners were objected to by the department by issuing a show-cause Notice dated:-12.01.2010. The petitioners replied to the show-cause by its reply dated:-28.06.2010. However, the Assistant Commissioner Central Excise, Dibrugarh vide order dated:-09.07.2010 disallowed the claims of refund of the petitioners in respect of the petitioner no. 2 amounting to Rs. 39,33,061/- (Rupees Thirty Nine