INDIA GLYCOLS LIMITED Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is common in both these writ petitions, who, inter alia, manufactures industrial alcohol or more precisely Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA), and is aggrieved on the export fee being charged from him, which is a fee for exporting liquor outside the territory of Uttarakhand.

(2.) The contention of the petitioner is that it is beyond the legislative competence of the State, to either control the manufacture or levy tax on "industrial alcohol", and only the Parliament is competent to do that.

(3.) The petitioner also relies on a Division Bench judgment of this High Court where, according to the petitioner, a similar challenge by him earlier on imposition of this levy was allowed and the levy was held to be illegal. The reference here is of a decision of Division Bench of this Court dated 09.01.2012 in Writ Petition No. 1202 of 2007 (M/B), M/s India Glycols Limited v. State of Uttarakhand & another. We will come to these submissions and what has been held by the Division Bench of this Court in a while, but before that a reference of certain provisions of law, and important dates may be in order.