JAWAHARMAL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, Jawaharmal, carries on business of plying his motor buses on four routes under the State Carriage Permits granted to him under the relevant provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. The three respondents to his petition respectively are:The State of Rajasthan, the Deputy Commissioner, Excise and Taxation (Appeals), Jaipur, and the Taxation Officer, (The Rajasthan Motor Vehicles) Sikar, State of Rajasthan. It appears that respondent No. 3 passed several assessment orders imposing different amounts of tax against his five vehicles which were running on the four routes in question. The periods for which these assessment orders were passed differed from vehicle to vehicle; but, on the whole, they covered the period between the 1st April, 1962 and the 30th September 1964. The total amount of tax imposed in respect of these vehicles by the assessment orders in question is Rs. 19,062.98 P. These orders have been passed under S. 2 of the Rajasthan Passengers and Goods Taxation (Validation) Ordinance, 1964 (Ordinance No. 4 of 1964). This ordinance was made and promulgated by the Governor of Rajasthan on May 15, 1964.

(2.) Aggrieved by these orders, the petitioner filed appeals before respondent No. 2, but respondent No. 2 refused to entertain the said appeals unless the petitioner paid in advance the tax imposed by the orders under appeals. Whilst these appeals were pending before respondent No. 2, the petitioner moved for stay in respect of the recovery of the tax assessed, but the said application was rejected on the ground that there was no provision in law to entertain any such application. That is why the petitioner submitted an application before the Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Rajasthan on the 3rd February 1962 and prayed that his buses should not be attached and sold in execution of the orders of assessment, against which he had preferred appeals, pending the hearing and final disposal of the said appeals. The Commissioner rejected this application on the 8th February 1962. Respondent No. 3 then proceeded to attach one of the buses of the petitioner, viz., Bus No. RJP-854 and took possession of it. The petitioner thereupon paid the amount of the taxes as assessed by the impugned orders, but the payment was made under protest. The present petition has been filed by the petitioner under Art. 32 of the Constitution challenging the validity of the assessment orders in question. The main ground on which the validity of the said orders is challenged, is that the Ordinance under which the impugned orders were passed and the Rajasthan Passengers and Goods Taxation (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1964 (No. 22 of 1964) (hereinafter called the Act) which repealed and replaced the said Ordinance, are constitutionally invalid. The petitioner prays that this Court should hold that the Act is invalid, and should, by an appropriate writ, quash the impugned orders of assessment passed against him. The petitioner also claims that pending the final disposal of his petition, the respondents, their servants, and agents should be restrained from realising the tax as directed by the impugned orders and from seizing the other buses of the petitioner for the purpose of recovering the said tax.

(3.) In order to appreciate the contention of the petitioner that the Act is invalid, it is necessary to mention the legislative back- ground of the Act. The Legislature of respondent No. 1 passed an Act in 1959 (No. 18 of 1959) known as the Rajasthan Passengers and Goods Taxation Act, 1959 (hereinafter called 'the principal Act'). This Act received the assent of the President on April 27, 1959, was published in the Rajasthan Gazette on April 30, 1959 and came into force on May 1, 1959. The validity of this Act has been upheld by this Court in M/s. Sainik Motors, Jodhpur vs. State of Rajasthan, (1962) 1 SCR 517. Section 3 of the principal Act authorised the State Government to levy, charge and collect tax on all fares and freights in respect of all passengers carried and goods transported by motor vehicles in Rajasthan. The said section further provided that the rate of the tax shall not exceed 1/8th of the value of fare or freight in the case of cemented, tarred, asphalted, metalled, gravel and kankar roads, and shall not exceed 1/12th of such value in other cases as may be notified by the State Government from time to time.