MAFATLAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By an order dated 14/8/1985, a division bench comprising Hon'ble Mr Justice P. N. Bhagwati and Hon'ble Mr Justice Ranganath Misra ordered this group of matters to be placed before a bench of seven Judges as in their view the decision of the Constitution bench comprising five Judges in the case of SALES TAX OFFICER v. Kanhaiya Lal Mukundlal Sara required reconsideration. Subsequent to this order, certain other matters also came on to be tagged on with this batch of appeals. While making that order it appears that the attention of the division bench was not drawn to a seven-Judge bench decision in the State of Kerala v. Aluminium Industries Ltd

(2.) Mr F. S. Nariman, the learned counsel who opened the submissions on behalf of the appellants/petitioners, stated that the decision in Kanhaiya Lal case has been "expressly approved" on both the points in the case of State of Kerala. He placed emphasis on the following observation;

(3.) We, therefore, in the above circumstances, direct that the papers be placed before the learned chief justice for constituting a larger bench to decide the questions which arise in this batch of matters, Haying regard to the urgency of the matters we would request the learned chief justice to constitute a larger bench as early as possible, more so because those matters wherein the interpretation and constitutionality of the provisions. introduced by the Exciseand Customs Laws (Amendment) Act, 1991 arise, also have been tagged along with these cases court Masters