BHASIR OIL MILLS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two petitions can conveniently be disposed of by this common judgment as common questions of law and fact arise therein for consideration.

(2.) Briefly the facts are that in Writ Petition No. 2049 of 1985, the petitioners Nos. 1 to 6 are Owner's of Oil Mills, who according to them extract oil from washed cotton seeds after subjecting them to the process of bleaching and deodourisation. The petitioner No. 7 which is a public limited company registered under the Companies Act owns a solvent extraction plant and is engaged in extracting oil from oil cakes by the solvent extraction process. As regards Writ Petition No. 133 of 1986, the petitioner therein is a private limited Company Registered under the Companies Act and is engaged in extracting oil from oil bearing materials like rice bran, pulse cake, Mohova cake, Soyabeen cake etc. by the solvent extraction process in its solvent extraction plant at Khamari-Amgaon, district Bhandara.

(3.) The respondent No. 2 issued show cause notices to the petitioners in Writ Petition No. 2049 of 1985 under Section 3 of the Vegetable Oils Cess Act, 1983 (for short 'the Cess Act') for levy of cess on vegetable oil extracted by the petitioners Nos. 1 to 6 from the oil seeds and by the petitioner No. 7 from the oil cakes. He also issued show cause notice under Section 3 of the Cess Act to the Petitioner, in Writ Petition No. 133 of 1986 for levy of cess on oil extracted from oil cakes and rice bran. Section 3 of the Cess Act, it may be seen, provides for levy of cess on vegetable oil for the purpose of the National Oil Seeds and Vegetables Oils Development Board Act, 1983 (for short the Board Act) There is however, no separate definition of the expression "vegetable Oil" given in the Cess Act but as provided in Section 2(2) of the said Act, the definition of the said expression given in Section 3(4) of the Board Act would be applicable in construing the said expression used in Section 3 of the said Act. The grievance of the petitioner in these writ petitions is that the levy of cess upon the vegetable oil for the purposes of the Board Act under Section 3 of the Cess Act is unreasonable and excessive. Moreover, according to them the vegetable oil extracted by them is not covered by the definition of the said expression under Section 3(4) of the Board Act. They have, therefore, challenged in these writ petitions the aforesaid show cause notices issued to them by the respondent No. 2.