Validation on a repealed statute failed where no saving provision preserved the copra tax liability.

A validating amending enactment cannot operate on a statute that has already been repealed unless a valid saving or continuation provision preserves a subsisting legal foundation. Here, the General Sales Tax (Validation) Ordinance and Act sought to cure defects in the General Sales Tax Act, 1125 after that Act had been repealed by the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963. The saving provisions did not preserve any surviving liability or operative basis for the copra assessments. Accordingly, the attempted validation had no effect on the repealed Act, and the assessment on the assessee's copra transactions could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether the General Sales Tax (Validation) Ordinance, 1964 and the General Sales Tax (Validation) Act, 1964 could validly amend the General Sales Tax Act, 1125 after that Act had already been repealed by Section 61 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, so as to sustain the assessment on the assessee's copra transactions.

Analysis: The validation enactment was framed as an amending measure directed to the General Sales Tax Act, 1125, and was intended to remove the effect of the earlier decision that had held assessments on the last purchase of copra to be unsustainable because of defective wording in the amended Act. However, by the time the validation measure came into force, the General Sales Tax Act, 1125 had already ceased to exist, having been repealed by the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963. The saving provisions in Section 61 of the repealing Act and the general saving rule in Section 4 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Act, 1125 did not assist the Revenue, because the assessment in question was not founded on a subsisting operation of the repealed Act and no accrued right or liability under that Act survived in relation to the copra transactions. In the absence of a parent Act in force, the attempted validation amendment had no operative base.

Conclusion: The validation ordinance and the validation Act were ineffective to amend the repealed General Sales Tax Act, 1125, and the assessment on the assessee's copra transactions could not be sustained.

Final Conclusion: The petition succeeded to the extent of the tax levied on the copra transactions, and the assessment in that respect was set aside without an order as to costs.

Ratio Decidendi: A validating amending enactment cannot operate upon a statute that has already been repealed, unless a subsisting legal foundation remains for the amendment through a valid saving or continuation provision.

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