INDIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these two Writ Petitions, petitioners have called in question the validity of Serial No. 2C of the Schedule to the Karnataka Profession Tax Act, 1976 (in short, 'the Act') which pertains to providing of rate of tax under the said Act in respect of Medical Practitioners on the ground that it violates the equality clause under the Constitution.

(2.) Petitioners in the present cases are Medical Practitioners having standing of more than five years in the profession. They are practising in District Head Quarters like Karwar, Taluka Head Quarter, Honnavar (Uttara Kannada District), and Bangalore Urban Agglomeration. The first petitioner in Writ Petition No. 32120 of 1993 is the Association of Medical Practitioners.

(3.) The contention raised on behalf of the petitioners is that the measure adopted under the Act for prescribing the rate of tax is arbitrary in as much as the same could have been prescribed only on the basis of income earned by such medical practitioners as is sought to be done in the case of persons carrying on business and not on the basis of the place of their practice or their standing in the profession.