BHARAT COKING COAL LTD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has filed this writ petition challenging the orders. Annexures 1, 2 and 3, passed by the respondents demanding cess on Royalty and dead rent. While entertaining this writ petition, this Court on 13.11.1990 passed the following order: It is ordered that in the event the petitioner fails in this application, it will pay the amount that may be found due against it as cess with interest at the rate of eighteen per cent per annum from the date of demand till the date of payment.

(2.) WE have heard the learned Counsel for the parties.

(3.) AFTER the aforesaid judgment of this Court, the Supreme Court also considered and decided the same controversy relating to the validity and scope of the very same Validation Act in appeal from Madras in P. Kannadasan v. State of Tamil Nadu and Ors. : AIR1996SC2560 . The Supreme Court while upholding the validity of the validation Act declared that no distinction can be drawn between the person who has paid the cess and the person who has not paid it because the Act indicates the intention to validate imposition as well as collection. The relevant extracts from the judgment of the Supreme Court are re produced below: