P P KALYANASUNDARAM Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ applicant who is the proprietor of a Cinema Theatre called Padmanabha Talkies situate within the Kollengode Panchayat has impugned the validity of the Kerala Local Authorities Entertainments Tax Act, 1961. The local authority the Kollengode Panchayat, the second respondent to this writ application, has levied a tax at the rate of 20 per cent on each payment for admission to any entertainment pursuant to the power conferred on , it by S.3 of the above mentioned Act. That section is in these terms :

(2.) It appears to me that the points raised in this writ application are covered by the decision of the Supreme Court in Corporation of Calcutta & another v. Liberty Cinema reported in Civil Appeal No. 266 of 1964. The certified copy of the Judgment in that case has been made available to me by the learned Advocate General who appeared on behalf of the first and second respondents to this writ application, the State of Kerala and the Kollengode Panchayat respectively.

(3.) The question that their Lordships of the Supreme Court had to consider is very similar to the one that is raised before me in this writ application. They were concerned with the imposition of a licence fee on Cinema Theatres by the Calcutta Municipality under the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951. S.548(2) of the above Act provides that