TATA IRON AND STEEL CO LIMITED INDIAN IRON AND STEEL CO LIMITED INDIAN COPPER CORPORATION LIMITED Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following Judgment of the court was delivered by

(2.) THESE three sets of appeals raise a common point relating to the validity of the imposition of a cess under ss. 5 and 6 of the Bengal Cess Act, 1880 (Bengal Act IX of 1880, as amended in Bihar), hereinafter referred to as the Act. THESE provisions whose interpretation is the only point for consideration in these appeals run in these terms: '5. All immovable property to be liable to local cess. From and after the commencement of this Act in any district or part of a district, all immovable property situate therein, except as otherwise in section 2(2) provided, shall be liable to the payment of local cess. 6. Cess how to be assessed.-The local cess shall be assessed on the annual value of land s and until provision to the contrary is made by the central Legislature on the. annual net profits from mines and quarries, other than notified mines and from tramways, railways and other immovable property, ascertained respectively as in this Act prescribed; and the rate at which the local cess shall be levied for each year shall(a) in the case of such annual net profits, be one anna on each rupee of such profits; and (b) in the case of the annual value of lands, be such rate as shall be determined for such year in the manner-in this Act prescribed Provided that the rate at which the local cess shall be levied for any one year on the annual value of lands shall not be less than the. rate of one anna and six pies or more than the rate of two annas on each rupee of such annual value. '

(3.) FINALLY we come to the assessment in respect of the year 1954-55 with which the present appeals are concerned. For that year the company was assessed by the Cess Deputy Collector on the basis that it had made a profit of Rs. 4/7.00 per ton of iron ore extracted. The company filed an appeal to the Deputy Commissioner and the ground urged by the company was that it was not at all liable to the levy of cess under the Act because it did not sell any ore as such and could not therefore to treated as having made ' any profit from the mines' within the meaning of s.6 of the Act. The Deputy Commissioner rejected this contention but considering that the cess Deputy Collector had not adopted a proper basis for ascertaining the profits, remanded the case for an enquiry as to the cost of extraction of iron ore and for the calculation of other working expenses. The company then filed a revision application to the Commissioner of the Chota Nagpur Division raising the same point about its non-liability to cess but when this was rejected, preferred a further revision to the Board of Revenue. This application met with the same fate and thereafter the company moved the High court of Patna by petitions under Arts. 226 and 227 of the Constitution for quashing the order of the Board of Revenue confirming the order of the Deputy Commissioner remanding the proceedings to the Cess Deputy Collector for enquiry for recomputing the net annual profits of the company for the year. The learned judges of the High court dismissed the Writ application but granted leave under Art. 133 of the Constitution. Civil Appeal 587 of 1961 is the appeal filed in pursuance of the certificate granted by the High court. Civil Appeal 588 of 1961 is an appeal by special leave granted by this court against the order of the Board of Revenue which was the subjectmatter of proceedings in the Writ Petition before the High court. The material facts of the other appeals are similar and need not be set out. It is sufficient to add that the writ petitions of the other two appellants were dealt with by the High court, along with the petition of the Tata Ironand Steel Co. Ltd. and disposed of by a common judgment. In the case of the other two appellants also the two appeals by each are one from the judgment of the High court dismissing the relevant writ petition and the other from the order of the Board of Revenue.