GUJARAT COMPOSITE LIMITED Vs. RANIP NAGARPALIKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) For the manufacture of their end products, the appellants bring raw asbestos into the area of the Ranip Nagarpalika, the first respondent. The question is whether they are liable to pay Octroi under Entry 70 of Schedule I of the Gujarat Gram and Nagar Panchayats Taxes and Fees Rules, 1964, as they contend, or under Entry 71 thereof, as the respondents contend. Entry 71 is the general residuary entry. Entry 70, as we have ascertained from the relevant Gazette, reads (precisely) thus:

(2.) The High Court, being approached by the appellants, dismissed their Writ Petition by the order under challenge. It found that there were disputed questions of fact, as to whether raw asbestos was a mineral and whether grog was a mineral.

(3.) That raw asbestos is a mineral has been found by this Court in the judgments in Hyderabad Industries Limited v. Union of India, (1995) 5 SCC 338 and (1999) 5 SCC 15. The only issue that has, therefore, been addressed by learned counsel for the parties is in relation to the Entries aforementioned.