BANGALORE CLUB Vs. ENTERTAINMENT TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER Bangalore Club is before me seeking to declare that the religious celebration of the new year eve as outside the purview of the Entertainment Tax Act.

(2.) PETITIONER is a member club extending cultural and social facilities to its members. Petitioner club right from the day it was established by the English People is predominantly Christian oriented club. Right from the inception the petitioner is celebrating the new year eve to ring out the old and to ring in the new. The celebration is not open to public but regulated by a strict dress code and others wherein the members and the relatives and guests can join. It is a religious function. Members start gathering from the evening to witness the new year eve and they start parting after the function is over at the stroke of midnight. The members are required to pay to make up all the arrangements like lighting, music, decoration etc. Petitioner collects the amounts to recoup the cost of the new year eve function, the Entertainment Tax Officer, issued a notice calling upon the petitioner to pay entertainment tax in terms of Sec. 3 (l) (l-a) of the Entertainment Tax Act (the Act for short) on the total collection for the new year eve on 31-12-2002, at 10%. An exhaustive reply was filed in terms of Annexure-B. Thereafter the entertainment Tax Officer passed on the information to the first respondent. The first respondent initiated proceedings under Sec. 6a{3) of the Act in terms of Annexure-C. Aggrieved by the same petitioner is before me.

(3.) MS. Niloufer Akbar, learned HCGP accepts notice for the respondents.