LAKSHMANAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in both these cases are millers who buy copra, crush the same in their mills and sell the oil produced therefrom. The Central Excise issued notices to them under the Produce Cess Act, 1966 calling upon them to file returns for assessing them to excise duty in respect of the copra crushed in their mills. Thereupon these writ petitions were filed to quash the action taken by the Central Excise, and to prohibit it from levying or collecting any duty of excise from the petitioners.

(2.) The duty of excise that was proposed to be levied against the petitioners is the one imposed under S.3 of the Produce Cess Act Several grounds have been raised by the petitioners against the constitutional validity of the above imposition. But in the light of the settled legal position, those grounds have not been pressed by counsel. The only point urged by them is that the impugned levy would not fall within the ambit of the charging section read with the relevant item in the Second Schedule of the Act.

(3.) It is necessary to read Sub-s.(2) of S.3 and the relevant item in Schedule II for appreciating the above argument. S.3(2) reads: