MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE, RAIPUR Vs. PUNJAB OIL MILLS, RAIPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a Letters Patent Appeal against the order of Choudhuri J. declining to quash an order of the Board of Revenue, Madhya Pradesh, dated 25th August 1956, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) THE Petitioner -Appellant is the Secretary of Municipal Committee, Raipur. Respondent -non -applicant No. 1 is Messrs, Punjab Oil Mills, Raipur, which imported oil -seed within the limits of the Raipur Municipality. The imported oil -seed was liable to octrol tax under the rules framed under Clause (e) of Sub -section (1) of Section 66 of the Madhya Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1922 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). After extracting oil from the oilseed imported by it, Respondent No. 1 exported the oil so manufactured outside the limits of the municipality and then claimed a refund of the octrol tax paid by it on the entry of the oilseed into those limits, on the ground that it was used by it for manufacturing oil and, as the oil manufactured was exported out of the limits of the municipality, it was entitled to the refund of the octrol tax paid, under proviso (b) to Rule 38 of the Rules framed by the State Government under Sections 71, 76 and 85 of the Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'refund rules').

(3.) THE contention of the learned Counsel for the Appellant Municipal Committee is that proviso (b) to Rule 38 of the refund rules is ultra vires the rule making power of the State Government. It is contended that the rules are purported to have been framed under Sections 71, 76 and 85 of the Act, and under those sections all that could be done was to make rules 'regulating the refund of taxes'. The rules could not, therefore, provide that if the goods imported within the municipal limits were 'consumed, or used' within those limits, the importer should yet be entitled to a refund of the octrol tax on the ground that the goods exported were 'manufactured' within the octrol limits from the imported raw material.