All the pleas raised by the appellants were rejected by Sarjoo Prasad, C. J. and Ram Labhaya, J., who delivered,, separate but companycurring judgments.
The appellants moved the High Court under Art.
246 of 1956 and 2 of 1959 Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India for enforcement of Fundamental Rights with C. As.
127 of 1958 carries on its trade in Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.
All the three companypanies which would be described hereafter as the appellants carry their tea to Calcutta in order that it may be sold in the Calcutta market for home companysumption or export outside India.
The tax thus demanded was paid by the appellants under protest, and soon thereafter petitions were filed in the Assam High Court under Art.
These petitions were heard by a Special Bench of the Assam High Court, which, by its judgment and order dated June 6, 1955, dismissed them holding that the Act was number unconstitutional.
From the judgment of the High Court the appellants have companye up in appeal on certificates granted by the High Court.
The petitioners also claimed alternatively a writ of prohibition or any other appropriate writ restraining the respondent and its officers from enforcing the Act against the appellants.
301 of the Constitution.
3 of s. 7 of the Act,, published a numberification in the Assam Government Gazette bearing date June 21, 1954, by which he numberified for general information that the return under the aforesaid Act and the rules made thereunder for the period companymencing June 1, 1954 to September 30, 1954, should be furnished by October 30, 1954.
The petitions filed by the appellants were heard by a Special Bench of the Assam High Court.
132 and two petitions filed under Art.
126 of 1958 and Civil Appeal No.
It was also asserted that the Act was within the legislative companypetence of the Assam Legislature and was number within the terms of the prohibition companytained in Art.
226 of the Constitution challenging the validity of the said Act and praying for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to forbear from giving effect to the provisions of the Act and the numberification issued under the Act and or a writ of prohibition or any other appropriate writ restraining them from taking steps under the provisions of the Act.
32 of the Constitution were filed on behalf of two other producers of tea.
The Assam Legislature passed the Act which received the assent of the Governor of Assam on April 9, 1954, and came into force on and from June 1, 1954.
126 128 of 1958.
246 of 1956 and with P. Chaudhuri, D. N. Mukherji and B. N. Ghose, for the appellants in C. As.
The purpose of the Act is to levy taxes on certain goods carried by road or inland waterways in the State of Assam.
Thereupon, the appellants obtained the certificates that the cases involved substantial questions of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution.
The appellants in some of the cases, in pursuance of demand numberices, submitted returns to the third respondent, the Superintendent of Taxes, in the prescribed form in respect of tea despatched and carried up to September 30, 1954, under protest.
226 challenging the validity of the Act as well as the tax demands made by the officers of the respondent.
132 of the Constitution by the High Court of Judicature in Assam and Writ Petitions under Art.
The appellants challenged the validity of the Act mainly on the grounds that 1 the Act, rules and the numberifications under the Act were ultra vires the Constitution, because the Act was repugnant to the provisions of Art.
By J. their respective petitions the appellants prayed that a writ of mandamus should issue directing the respondent and its officers to forbear from giving effect to the provisions of the Act and from otherwise enforcing it against the appellants.
Thus the bulk of tea produced and manufactured is carried out of Assam, either for internal companysumption in India or for export abroad.
The sale of tea inside Assam bears a very small proportion to the tea produced and manufactured by the appellants.
N. C. Chatterjee, with N. C. Chakravarti, Dipti Bose and S. C. Mazumdar for the petitioners in Petition No.
On June 30, 1954, the second respondent, the Commissioner of Taxes, Assam, in exercise of the powers companyferred upon him by subs.
The Assam Taxation on goods carried by road and inland waterways Act, companytravenes Art.
The Judgment of Sinha, C. J., was delivered by Sinha, C. J. The judgment of Gajendragadkar, Wanchoo and Das Gupta, JJ.,
301 of the Constitution as the tax on carriage of tea through the State of Assam had the effect of interfering with the freedom of trade, companymerce and intercourse 2 that tea being a companytrolled industry under the provisions of the Tea Act XXIX of 1953, the Union Government alone had the power to regulate the manufacture, production, distribution or transport of tea and the jurisdiction of the Assam Legislature was thus companypletely ousted 3 that the tax under the Act was numberhing but a duty of excise, in substance, though number in form, and was thus an encroachment on the Central legislative field within the meaning of entry 84 of the Union List.
The three appellants are tea companypanies, two of which Civil Appeal No.
The impugned Act was also challenged on the ground that it was discriminatory and thus void under Art.
August 16, 17.
The appellants then applied for and obtained a certificate from the High Court under Art.
32 of the Constitution were moved in this Court for the same purpose of challenging the vires of the Act.
933, 55 C.L.R. 1, 56 and regarding the meaning of export to the decision in I.L.R. 1955 Tr.
The respondents opposed those petitions under Art.
226 of the Constitution in the High Court.
The case of the respondents was that the Act was in pith and substance, a legislation to levy tax on certain classes and types of goods carried by road or inland waterways, strictly within entry number 56 of the State List.
Besides the tea carried by rail, a large quantity of tea is carried by road or by inland waterways from Assam to Bengal and in some of these cases, from one part of West Bengal to another part of the same State through inland waterways, only a few miles of which pass through the territory of the State of Assam.
301 of the Constitution or that it was an encroachment on the sphere of the Union Legislature or was in any way in companyflict with the provisions of the Tea Act XXIX of 1953.
The petitions under Art.
SINHA C. J. These appeals on certificates granted under Art.
They also paid the tax demanded under protest.
It appears that the appellants are growers of tea in West Bengal or in Assam and carry their tea to the market in Calcutta from where the tea is sold for companysumption in the companyntry or is exported for sale out of the companyntry.
The appellants and the petitioners will , in the companyrse of this judgment, be referred to, for the sake of companyvenience, as the appellants.
The State of Assam, the Commissioner of Taxes, appointed under s. 6 of the Act, and the Superintendent of Taxes are the respondents to the appeals and the writ petitions.
The said numberification also demanded the furnishing of quarterly returns before January 30, 1955 and April 36, 1955, for the quarters ending December 31, 1954 and March 31, 1955, respectively.
The appellants moved the High Court of Judicature in Assam under Art.
128 of 1958 carry on their trade of growing tea in the District of Sibsagar in Assam while the third Civil Appeal No.
126 to 128 of 1958.
