India, March 21 -- The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to refund the Rs.8.2 crore royalty paid by a company that carried out the underground excavation work for five metro stations of the Aqua Line, observing that the state was not entitled to the amount.

A division bench of justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande on March 12 asked the state government to refund the amount to Dogus-Soma, a joint venture between Turkish construction firm Dogus Insaat Ve Ticaret AS and Hyderabad-based Soma Enterprise Ltd, in 12 weeks. If it failed to do so, the state would have to pay an interest of 12% per annum on the amount, the court said.

"Merely because the petitioner has now deposited the royalty, definitely, the st...