DURGA CINEMA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner is a partnership firm and carries on the business of exhibition of motion pictures in Jajpur in the district of Cuttack.

(2.) BY the present writ application, the Petitioner challenges the constitutional validity of Section 4 -A of the Orissa Entertainments Tax Act, 1946 (Orissa Act V of 1946) (for short, "the Act"). The State Government imposed a new kind of tax "in respect of every show by the proprietor of the cinema house" at the specified rates by introduction of Section 4 -A in the Act by a Notification dated 27 -4 -1976. This section was substituted by Act 4 of 1984 and again amended by Ordinance No. 7 of 1985. At the relevant time, when the writ application was filed, rates of show tax varied from Rs. 10/ - to Rs. 25/ - per show according to the location of the cinema houses from a town within a municipal area to that in Mofussils and outside places. By the amendment brought about in the year 1985, the show tax was brought down to Rs. 5/ - to Rs. 10/ -. We are, however, not concerned with all these details.

(3.) ACCORDINGLY , it was submitted that the imposition was in the nature of a tax on trade and profession which field was already occupied and covered by Entry No. 60 of List II which provides taxes on professions, trades, callings and employments. Therefore, this imposition was in reality not a tax on entertainment or amusement as per Entry No. 62.