LAWS(KAR)-1964-7-28

DCAWASJI AND CO Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

Decided On July 06, 1964
D.CAWASJI AND CO. Appellant
V/S
STATE OF MYSORE Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner prays for a declaration that the State of Mysore has no authority to levy and collect sales tax under the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1957, to be hereinafter referred to as the "Act", on its sales of arrack and special liquor and that the proviso to section 5(3)(a) read with section 19 of the Act, purporting to give such an authority, is beyond the competency of the State Legislature and unconstitutional on the grounds more fully set out in the affidavit filed in support of the petition.

(2.) This petition came up for admission before us on 26th June, 1964. Act that time, in the light of the argument advanced before us, we concentrated our attention only on section 19 of the Act. It was urged by the learned counsel for the petitioner that section 19 does not purport to levy any tax on the sales in question; it merely authorises the State Government to collect tax on those sales on the assumption that those sales are exigible to tax; but that assumption has no legal basis. If we read section 19 by itself as we mistakenly did at that time, there is some support for this contention. Hence, we thought it desirable to hear the learned Advocate-General even before we admitted this petition, lest the admission of this case should without any purpose, provoke others, similarly placed, to rush to this Court with writ petitions. We accordingly notified the learned Advocate-General. This day, we have heard Sri D. R. Venkatesha Iyer, the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned Advocate-General. We have come to the conclusion that there are no merits in this petition. We shall presently state our reasons for the conclusion reached by us.

(3.) The petitioner is a registered partnership firm with its principal office at Bangalore. It is a licensed vendor of arrack in the City of Bangalore. In the course of its business, it has purchased and is purchasing considerable quantity of arrack from the State Government. The State Government is levying tax on its sales of arrack to the petitioner under the proviso to section 5(3)(a) of the Act, and is collecting the same under section 19. The question is whether the Government has no authority to do so ?