LexM/S PURBANCHAL CABLES & CONDUCTORS PVT. LTD versus ASSAM STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD & ANOTHER
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[2012] 6 S.C.R. 905 M/S PURBANCl-IAL CABLES & CONDUCTORS PVT. LTD. v. ASSAM STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD & ANOTHER (Civil Appeal No. 2348 of 2003 etc.) JULY 10, 2012 [H.L. DATTU AND ANIL R. DAVE, JJ.] A B INTEREST ON DELA YEO PAYMENT TO SMALL SCALE AND ANCILLIARY INDUSTRIAL UNDERTAKINGS C ACT, 1973: Suit for interest on delayed payment - Held: Is maintainable - Supplier may file a suit only for a higher rate of interest on delayed payments made by the buyer from the D commencement of the Act. Prospective operation of the Act - Held: The Act is a substantive law, as vested right of entitlement to a higher rate of interest in case of delayed payment accrues in favour of the supplier and a cormsponding liability is imposed on the E buyer - Any substantive law shall operate prospectively unless retrospective operation is clearly made out in the language of the statute - In the absence of any express legislative intendment of the retrospective application of the Act, and by virtue of the fact that the Act creates a new liability of a high F rate of interest against the buyer, the Act cannot be construed to have retrospective effect - The Act, though enacted on 2. 4. 1993, by a legal fiction is deemed to have come into effect ·from the date of promulgation of the Ordinance, i.e. 23. 9. 1992 - Since the Act envisages that the supplier has an accrued G right to claim a higher rate of interest in terms of the Act, the same can only be said to accrue for sale agreements after the date of commencement of the Act, i.e. 23.9.1992 and not any time prior - Interpretation of Statutes - Precedent. 905 H 906 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2012] 6 S.C.R. A PRECEDENT: Reconsideration of a decision - Held: Judicial discipline demands that a decision of a Division Bench of two Judges should be followed by another Division Bench of two Judges 8 - No case has been made out for reconsideration of the decision of the Court in Assam Small Scale Industries - Doctrine of stare decisis. In the instant appeals arising out of the claim of the appellants-suppliers for interest in terms of the Interest C on Delayed Payments to Small Scale and Ancillary Industrial Undertakings Act, 1993 (the Act), the questions for consideration before the Court were: (1) "whether a suit for interest alone is maintainable under the provisions of the Act" and (2) "whether the suppliers can D get the benefit of the provisions of the Act even if the contract of supply was ..e'i)Cecuted prior to the commencement of the Act, whereas the supplies are made after the commencement 'of the Act." E Dismissing the appeals, the Court HELD: 1. Since a Division Bench of this Court in Modern Industries' case* has already approved the dictum of the Full Bench of the High Court with regard to the maintainability of a suit only for interest, that F question is no longer res integra. Therefore, the suppliers may file a suit only for a higher rate of interest on delayed payments made by the buyer from the commencement of the Act. [para 12] [923-H; 924-A] G *Modern Industries v. Steel Authority of India Limited 2010 (4) SCR 560 = (2010) 5 sec 44 - relied on 2.1 The fundamental rule of construction is the same for all statutes whether fiscal or otherwise. The under- lying principle is that the meaning and intention of a H PURBANCHAL CABLES & CONDUCTORS PVT. LTD. v. 907 ASSAM STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD statute must be ~ollected from the plain and A unambiguous expression used therein rather from any notion. To arrive at the real meaning, it is always necessary to get an exact conception, scope and object of the whole Act. [para 22] [9"29-B-C] Zile Singh v. State of Haryana 2004 (5 ) Suppl. SCR 272 B = (2004) a sec 1 - re.lied on 2'2 The remedy sought to be applied by the Act is made clear in the Statement of Objects and Reasons, in which, it is stated that due to the delayed payments by C buyers to' the small scale ii;idustries, their working capital was being affected" causing great harm to the small scale industries ir'f general. The Act was passed by Parliament to impose a heavy interest on the buyers who delayed the payments of the small scale industries, in order to D deter the buyers from delaying the payments after accepting the supplies made by the suppliers. Keeping in view the said object, the Act was enacted by Parliament. Before such enactment, the supplier whose payment was delayed by the buyer p
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