ANASWARA OFFSET PRIVATE LTD Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is a small-scale industrial unit engaged in the production of brochures, folders, leaflets, dockets, etc. They have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a declaration that the condition prescribed in the notifications issued as per S.R.O. No. 1092 of 1999 as amended by Notification S.R.O. No. 295 of 2000 to the extent it denies sales tax exemption to the appellant's unit in terms of the notification issued in S.R.O. No. 1729 of 1993 is unconstitutional, unsustainable and illegal. Writ of mandamus was also sought for directing the first and second respondents to grant sales tax exemption to the appellant's unit in accordance with Notification S.R.O. No. 1729 of 1993.

(2.) The appellant had purchased 29.387 cents of land for construction of factory for starting an offset press, vide registered sale deeds executed in the year 1997. Copies of the three sale deeds have been produced along with the writ petition covering pages 39 to 91 which made the case bundle bulky and unwieldy. Production of the copies of sale deeds was unnecessary. The details regarding the execution of the sale deeds would have been sufficient. Care should be taken to produce only relevant documents in the writ petition so that it would be easy to bring home the point and reduce the workload of the registry and the court. The appellant after purchasing the above-mentioned property had applied for financial assistance from the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Limited, as per application dated October 27, 1999. The Financial Corporation sanctioned financial assistance as per order dated April 7, 2000. The appellant-company started construction of the building for the factory and placed orders for purchase of machinery. The appellant had acquired necessary machinery and started the offset press in a rented building. The commercial production was started on September 30, 2000. The construction of the building was completed on May 15, 2001, occupancy certificate was issued and electric connection was received on October 25, 2001. The permission to instal machinery was received from the Corporation on September 11, 2001 and the unit was shifted to the new building.

(3.) The printing industry was exempted from sales tax as per notification issued in S.R.O. No. 1090 of 1999. Later as per Notification S.R.O. No. 802 of 2001, the exemption was withdrawn by the Government and printing industrial products was made liable to sales tax. The application was therefore made on September 23, 2002 for sales tax exemption. The appellant had also submitted application for financial assistance with the Vijaya Bank, Ernakulam for Rs. 160 lakhs on October 27, 1999. The appellant applied for registration as a small-scale industrial unit to the General Manager, District Industries Centre and got provisional registration on August 14, 2000. The unit got permanent registration on November 5, 2001. According to the appellant, he could not start commercial production due to reasons beyond his control. Request for exemption was considered by the General Manager, District Industries Centre and the application was rejected stating as follows: