DEN NETWORKS LIMITED, NEW DELHI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR THROUGH THE PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, COMMERCIAL TAXES, BIHAR, PATNA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner while questioning the vires of the provisions of Section 3AA of the Bihar Entertainment Tax Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), has alongside prayed for issuance of an appropriate writ for quashing the assessment orders pertaining to the 4th quarter of the Assessment Year 2015-16 (01.01.2016 to 31.03.2016), the Assessment Year 2016-17 (all four quarters) and the 1st quarter of the Assessment Year 2017-18 (01.04.2017 to 30.06.2017).

(2.) The petitioner is a company incorporated under the Companies Act,1956 and also registered with the Registrar of Companies, New Delhi. The petitioner is engaged in the business of providing entertainment through cables and the procedure which it follows is detailed at paragraph 4 of the writ petition which runs under:

(3.) It is the stand of the petitioner that as a Multi System Operator ('MSO' for the sake of brevity) the petitioner sometimes provides connection directly to the subscriber but mostly it is a provider of entertainment through the local cable operators who in turn provide entertainment to the subscriber. It is thus the case of the petitioner that while he provides direct point entertainment to a limited number of subscribers which may be a few hundred in the State of Bihar, he is largely providing connections to the Local Cable Operators, who in turn are providing connections to the subscribers.