SHETKARI SAHAKARI SAKHAR KARKHANA LIMITED SHETKARI SAHAKARI SAKHAR KARKHANA LIMITED ASHOK SAHAKARI SAKHAR KARKHANA LIMITED Vs. COLLECTOR OF SANGLI:COLLECTOR OF SANGLI:COLLECTOR OF AHMEDNAGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this judgment we shall dispose of five civil appeals in each one of which the appellant who is a registered co-operative society, challenges a judgment of the High Court of Bombay dismissing its petition for the issuance of an appropriate writ striking down the levy and demand of the cess imposed on it under the Bombay Sugarcane Cess Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Bombay Act') supplemented by the Sugarcane Cess (Validation) Act, 1961 (for short, the 'Central Act').

(2.) THE following table indicates the name of the appellant and the amount of cess impugned in each of the appeals as also other relevant particulars: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_381_1_1980Html1.htm</FRM>

(3.) WE may now take up for consideration the contentions raised at the hearing before us. Mr. A. K. Sen representing the appellant in Civil Appeal No. 2470 of 1968 argued in the first instance that the Central Act merely authorised the collection of amounts which had already been imposed, assessed or collected and that no assessment, recovery or collection could be made under Section 3 of the Central Act read with the relevant provisions of the Bombay Act after the enforcement of the Central Act. The contention is without force and in this connection we need do no more than refer to the language of clause (c) above extracted which specifically authorizes both assessment and recovery of the cess after the commencement of the Central Act, and to two earlier decisions of this Court in which an identical argument was made and repelled. The first of those decisions is reported as Jaora Sugar Mills (P.) Ltd. v. State of Madhya Pradesh, (1966) 1 SCR 523. The following observations made therein by Gajendragadkar, C. J., who delivered the judgment of the Court, are pertinent: