The main legal point established in the judgment is that the court upheld the rejection of the petitioner's claim for Capital Investment Subsidy as the application was filed after the stipulated period of six months, as per the relevant policy decisions of the State Government.

JUDGMENT :

The instant writ petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, has been filed seeking following reliefs :

(a) For quashing and setting-aside the Order dated 25.07.2012 contained in Memo No. 2302 dated 25.07.2012 (Annexure-11) passed by Director of Industries (Respondent No. 2), whereby and whereunder the Respondent No. 2, in a quite arbitrary and illegal manner and in complete disregard of the provisions of the Jharkhand Industrial Policy Act, 2001, has rejected the Application of the petitioner under the “Jharkhand Udyogik Protsahan Niyamawali, 2003”, filed for grant of Capital Investment Subsidy on the ground that the Screening Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary vide its meeting dated 31.05.2012 has found that the application for capital investment subsidy has been filed by the Petitioner after 8 years from the date of start of commercial production and 19 months from the date of issuance of certificate and hence recommended for rejection of the application.

(b) For a direction upon the concerned Respondent to immediately grant aforesaid Capital Investment Subsidies as applied by the Petitioner before the Competent Authority of the Respondent Department for grant of Capital Subsidy as provided under the “Jharkhand Industrial Policy Act, 2001" and in “Jharkhand Udyogik Protsahan Niyamawali, 2003”.

2. The brief facts of the case, as per the pleadings made in the writ petition, is that the State of Jharkhand came out with an Industrial Policy known as “Jharkhand Industrial Policy Act, 2001” vide Notification No. 1888 dated 25.08.2001 making therein, inter alia, the provisions for encouraging the existing Industrial Units, who have expanded/modernized/diversified their units on 15.11.2000 or thereafter. After promulgation of the aforesaid Industrial Policy, the State in order to implement the aforesaid policies notified a rule known as “Jharkhand Udyogik Protsahan Niyamawali, 2003”.

It is the case of the petitioner that the writ petitioner submitted application seeking benefit under the said Industrial Policy for Capital Investment Subsidy but the same was rejected vide order dated 25.07.2012 as contained in Memo No. 2302 on the ground that the Screening Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary vide its meeting dated 31.05.2012 has found that the application for capital investment subsidy filed by the petitioner after 8 (eight) years from the date of commencement of commercial production and 19 months from the date of issuance of certificate.

3. Mr. Shreenu Garapati, learned S.C. III appearing for the respondents-State of Jharkhand has submitted that the issue has already been decided by the Division Bench of this Court in L.P.A. No. 211 of 2012 vide order dated 13.06.2018, wherein this Court, after taking into consideration the period of limitation, i.e., filed after the period of six months, since the claim of the respondent/writ petitioner of the said Letters Patent Appeal has been rejected, herein also, the case of writ petitioner has been rejected since application for seeking the leave under the aforesaid policy decision has been filed after the period of six months.

4. Mr. Dipak Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner has not disputed the fact about submission of application after the period of six months as also the order passed by the Division Bench of this Court in L.P.A. No. 211 of 2012.

5. This Court has heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the documents available on record and found therefrom that Clause 5 of the "Jharkhand Mega Project Incentive Rule, 2005" enumerates the methodology/procedure for "Capital Investment Subsidy" made by the Mega Industries, which prescribed the time period of six months for submitting such application. The Clause 5 thereof reads as under :

“An application for claiming Capital Investment Subsidy under the said rules should be made in the application form prescribed for the purpose as specified in Schedule-