MCDOWELL & CO.LTD. Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Mr. Satyabir Bharti, counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Advocate General representing the State.

(2.) THE petitioner is aggrieved by and seeks to challenge the assessment orders, dated 19.7.2006 passed by the Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Barh Circle, Barh and the consequential demands issued on 20.2.2007 (Annexures 8 and 8A respectively in both the writ petitions). By the impugned assessment orders coming under challenge in CWJC No. 1211 of 2007, entry tax is levied on furnace oil for the period 22.8.2003 to 31.3.2004; in CWJC No. 1212 of 2007 the assessment order coming under challenge levied entry tax on the same article for the period 1.4.2004 to 31.3.2005.

(3.) IT is an admitted position that furnace oil, on which tax is sought to be levied, was not included in the schedule to the Act as it was originally framed in 1993. It came to be included (at serial no. 23) in the Schedule by the amending Act No.9 of 2003 with effect from 22.8.2003. In a recent decision by the court in M/s Indian Oil Corporation Limited & Another and M/s Harinagar Sugar Mills Ltd., 2007(1) PLJR 502, the provisions of the Act ' and the legislative changes introduced into it from time to time were considered in detail. The court found and. held that though the parent Act of 1993 was constitutionally valid, the amendments introduced into it without the assent/sanction of the President rendered it invalid and ultra vires Article 304(a) of the Constitution. According to the decision, the Act was bad, invalid and unenforceable from