WESTERN COALFIELDS LTD Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, a Government company, on which demand has been made for payment of terminal tax for import and export of goods by the Sarni Municipality has filed writ petition challenging the notifications, annexures P-1 and P-3, and seeking a declaration that the Municipal Council is incompetent to levy and collect terminal tax on the goods and the demands raised are invalid. Return has been filed on behalf of respondents Nos. 2 and 3. We have heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Additional Advocate-General for the State and learned counsel for the Municipal Council.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner urged the following submissions before :

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner, relying on the dictionary meaning of "local area" contended that a local area has fixed boundaries as formed by geological and natural process. Certain areas were taken out of the two Gram Sabhas and made into a notified area as the provision contemplates only a "specified area" being declared as a notified area. We are unable to agree with this contention. The expression "local area" may have a technical connotation in taxation statute and particularly in statutes relating to entry tax, but we are unable to find any technical meaning for the expression used either in section 5 or section 340 of the Act. The expression "local area" denotes some area which requires specification. Use of the expression "specified local area" does not mean that the area which has a separate identity alone can be declared to be a notified area. "an area" cannot have any limitations in its meaning. An area measuring one sq. mile is a "local area". It is also part of a "local area" which may measure 10 sq. miles or 100 sq. miles. There is nothing in the scheme of the Act or the scheme of the provisions of section 5 and section 340 of the Act to indicate any limitation on the power of the State Government to take area from two deferent Gram Panchayats and to club them in a single notified area. In fact, when the two areas which are contiguous are clubbed forming a notified area, that area can be taken to be within the expression "a local area". There was nothing illegal in the Government clubbing portions of two Gram Sabhas into a notified area. The contention that the municipality was illegally constituted cannot pass muster.