Content Provider | Supreme Court of India |
---|---|
e-ISSN | 30484839 |
Language | English |
Access Restriction | NDLI |
Subject Keyword | Tobacco Virginia Tobacco and country tobacco Imposition of Tax Sales Tax discriminatory |
Content Type | Text |
Resource Type | Law Judgement |
Jurisdiction | India |
Case Type | Appeal |
Court | Supreme Court of India |
Disposal Nature | Appeal Dismissed |
Headnote | Sales Tax—Tobacco—Imposition of Tax on sale of Virginia Tobacco and exemption of country tobacco—Provision if discriminatory—Purchase which procedes sale for export if could be exempted from tax—Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939 (Mad. 9 of 1939), as amended by the Madras General Sales Tax and the Madras Tobacco (Taxation of Sales and Registration) (Andhra Amendment) Act (Andhra XIV of 1955), Ss. 5, 6—Constitution of India, Arts. 14, 286 (1) (6).The appellants firms were doing business in the export of Virginia tobacco. The usual course of that business was stated to be that appellants first entered into contracts with their customers abroad for the sale of tobacco, and there- after they purchased the requisite quantities of goods locally and then exported them to foreign purchasers in performance of their contracts. Section 5 of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939, was amended by the Andhra State Legislature when the Andhra State came into existence by the Amending Act XIV of 1955. As a result of this enactment to sales of country tobacco were exempted ; while sale of Virginia tobacco were liable to be taxed. The appellants were called upon to produce their account books relating to their business in tobacco for the purpose of assessing sales tax. The appellants filed petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution challenging the constitutionality of the Amending Act, XIV of 1955, on the grounds inter alia that in taxing sales of Virginia tobacco and exempting from tax sales of other tobacco, the Act was discriminatory, as obnoxious to Art. 14, and besides that having regard to their course of business, any tax levied on their sales was in contravention of Art. 286 (1) (b) as amounting to a tax on sales “in the course of export" of tobacco. The High Court dismissed the petition holding that the impugned Act did not infringe any constitutional provision, but granted certificate under Art. 133 of the Constitution to appeal to the Supreme Court. Held, that it is for the person who assails a legislation as discriminatory to establish that it is not based on a valid classification and this burden is ail the heavier when the legislation under attack is a taxing statute. Though taxation laws must pass the test of Art. 14 of the Constitution, in deciding whether such a law is discriminatory or not, it is necessary to bear in mind that the State has a wide discretion in selecting the persons or objects it will tax, and that the statute is not open to attack on the mere ground that it taxes some persons or objects and not others. It is only when within the range of its selection, the law operates unequally, and this cannot be justified on the basis of a valid classification, that there would be a violation of Arts. 14. The Madras General Sales Tax (Andhra Amendment) Act, 1955, which taxed sales of Virginia Tobacco but exempted sales of ‘Nattu’ or country tobacco could not be said to be discriminatory and was not obnoxious to Art 14. Virginia tobacco has features which distinguishes it from country tobacco and can be treated as a class in itself. It was therefore within the power of the State to impose tax on the sales of Virginia tobacco while exempting sales of country tobacco. . It is only the sale under which the export is made that is protected by Art. 286 (1) (b); a purchase which precedes such a sale does not fall within its purview though made for the purpose of or with a view to effect an export. |
Judge | Hon'ble Mr. Justice T.L Venkatarama Aiyyar |
Neutral Citation | 1962 INSC 124 |
Petitioner | East India Tobacco Co. |
Respondent | State Of Andhra Pradesh |
SCR | [1963] 1 S.C.R. 404 |
Judgement Date | 1962-04-06 |
Case Number | 290 |
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 |