(1.) COMMON challenge is made to Notification No. S.O.201 dated 30th March, 2006, issued under Section 7(3)(b) of' the Bihar Finance Act, 1981, whereby and whereunder, Notification Nos. S.O.478 dated 22nd December, 1995, S.O.57 dated 2nd March, 2000, S.O.479 dated 22nd December, 1995 and S.O.58 dated 2ndMarch, 2000 have been withdrawn. A further, challenge is to another Notification No. S.O.202 dated 30th March, 2006, issued under Section 8(5)(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, whereby, Notification No. S.O.481 dated 22nd December, 2005 has been withdrawn. Apart from challenging the aforementioned notifications, constitutional validity of the provisions of Section 95(3)(ii) and Section 96(3) of the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 is also questioned. In view of the commonality of the grounds of challenge, all these writ petitions were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.
(2.) ALL the petitioners herein have established their industrial units in the unified State of Bihar before its bifurcation. The factual background leading to filing of these writ petitions is almost similar. Additionally in W.P. (T) No. 2664 of 2006 (Tata Steel Ltd. v. State of Jharkhand and Ors.) and W.P. (T) No. 5130 of 2006 (Ram Krishna Industries v. State of Jharkhand and Ors.) there are concluded judgments in favour of the petitioners. In the case of Tata Steel Ltd. the final judgment is by the Apex Court whereas in the later case the final judgment is by the High Court of Jharkhand. It is useful to refer to factual background emerging from the pleadings of the parties. In the year, 1995 the State Government formulated and notified its Industrial Policy, 1995. The salient features of this policy are enumerated in paragraph No. 4, which are reproduced hereunder:
(3.) CLAUSE 16 of the Industrial Policy provides for sales tax incentives. Clause 16.1 and 16.2 allow exemption for the new industries whereas Clause 16.3 provides sales tax exemption for the existing industries, undertaking expansion/diversification. Relevant extract of Clause 16 of the policy is reproduced hereunder: