Content Provider | Supreme Court of India |
---|---|
e-ISSN | 30484839 |
Language | English |
Access Restriction | NDLI |
Subject Keyword | taxation |
Content Type | Text |
Resource Type | Law Judgement |
Jurisdiction | India |
Case Type | Appeal |
Court | Supreme Court of India |
Disposal Nature | Appeal Dismissed |
Headnote | Promissory Estoppel- Nature extent and applicability of-Promissory estoppel cannot be enforced against Statute or public policy. State - Announcement of policy of incentives and concession including refund of sales tax to persons establishing large scale industries in focal point-Establishment of Vanaspati Unit-Authorities assuring concession and incentive- Claim for refund of sales tax- Action of authorities held not unauthorised nor beyond the scope of their authority- Held there was estoppel against the Government- But scheme of refund of sales tax held contrary to public policy and void under section 23 of the Contract Act and not enforceable in law. Constitution of India, 1950: Article 265. Taxation-Nature of power-Taxation is a sovereign power. Taxation-Refund of tax- Permissibility and legality of- No law can be made to refund the tax except when the levy is contrary to law- A promise or agreement to refund tax is a fraud on Constitution-Exemption from tax and refund of tax-Distinction between-Exemption is neither illegal nor against public policy-Refund of tax, unless levied contrary to law, would be invalid and ultra vires. The Government of Punjab issued a brochure in December, 1966 announcing its 'New Policy' declaring that incentives and concession, one of the them being refund of sales-tax would be available to those persons who were willing to set up selective large scale industries in the focal point. Attracted by the concessions and incentives the appellant's Manager wrote a letter in June, 1968 to the Chief Minister of Punjab expressing his willingness to set up a vanaspati unit provided the concession was made available to it. By its letter dated 2nd July, 1968 the Director of Industries replied the appellant assuring that the concession would be granted to it.Thereafter there had been exchange of correspondence and various meetings between the appellant's representative and officials of file Government. By its letter dated 25th October, 1968 the appellant requested for confirmation of the concession. By a letter dated 16th June, 1969 it was confirmed that the State Government had agreed to give the concession and incentives. Acting on the assurance the appellant purchased the land, which by a notification issued by the Government was included in the focal point, and also invested substantial amount in setting up the unit. Subsequently, the appellant claimed refund of sales tax paid by it to the State Government on sale made by it of its finished products. On respondents failure to refund the amount, the appellant filed a writ petition in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana for a direction to refund the sales tax to the appellant. A single judge of the High Court allowed the petition and directed the Government to honour its commitment of refunding sales tax to the appellant on principle of promissory estoppel. On appeal the order of Single Judge was set aside by the Division Bench holding that (i) the decision of the Government to grant concession came in June, 1969 but before that i.e. in May, 1969 the policy had undergone a change; (ii) in view of the decision of the Cabinet Sub-Committee in 1966 not to give any refund of sales tax the brochure itself was unauthorised and consequently the actions of the Government officials could not create any right in favour of the appellant; (iii) the refund of amount paid as sales tax by the appellant would be contrary to Articles 265 and 266 of the Constitution of India. In appeal to this court it was contended on behalf of the State that (i) in the absence of any assurance by a competent authority on behalf of the State the promise if any was incapable of giving rise to any equity; and (ii) that the policy of the Government announced in the brochure was only an offer and letter of the appellant sent on 25th October, 1968 was a counter offer which was under consideration of Government which made another counter offer on 16th June which was accepted by the appellant who thereafter applied for registration and the Government issued a notification declaring the factory in the focal point. |
Judge | Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.M. Sahai |
Neutral Citation | 1992 INSC 63 |
Petitioner | Amrit Banaspati Co. Ltd. And Anr. |
Respondent | State Of Punjab And Anr. |
SCR | [1992] 2 S.C.R. 13 |
Judgement Date | 1992-03-05 |
Case Number | 2832 |
National Digital Library of India (NDLI) is a virtual repository of learning resources which is not just a repository with search/browse facilities but provides a host of services for the learner community. It is sponsored and mentored by Ministry of Education, Government of India, through its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). Filtered and federated searching is employed to facilitate focused searching so that learners can find the right resource with least effort and in minimum time. NDLI provides user group-specific services such as Examination Preparatory for School and College students and job aspirants. Services for Researchers and general learners are also provided. NDLI is designed to hold content of any language and provides interface support for 10 most widely used Indian languages. It is built to provide support for all academic levels including researchers and life-long learners, all disciplines, all popular forms of access devices and differently-abled learners. It is designed to enable people to learn and prepare from best practices from all over the world and to facilitate researchers to perform inter-linked exploration from multiple sources. It is developed, operated and maintained from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
Learn more about this project from here.
NDLI is a conglomeration of freely available or institutionally contributed or donated or publisher managed contents. Almost all these contents are hosted and accessed from respective sources. The responsibility for authenticity, relevance, completeness, accuracy, reliability and suitability of these contents rests with the respective organization and NDLI has no responsibility or liability for these. Every effort is made to keep the NDLI portal up and running smoothly unless there are some unavoidable technical issues.
Ministry of Education, through its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), has sponsored and funded the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) project.
Sl. | Authority | Responsibilities | Communication Details |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education |
Sanctioning Authority | https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives |
2 | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project | https://www.iitkgp.ac.in |
3 | National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project | Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in |
4 | Project PI / Joint PI | Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project |
Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon |
5 | Website/Portal (Helpdesk) | Queries regarding NDLI and its services | support@ndl.gov.in |
6 | Contents and Copyright Issues | Queries related to content curation and copyright issues | content@ndl.gov.in |
7 | National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club) | Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach | clubsupport@ndl.gov.in |
8 | Digital Preservation Centre (DPC) | Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books | dpc@ndl.gov.in |
9 | IDR Setup or Support | Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops | idr@ndl.gov.in |