Ultra vires proviso and eligibility conditions: prior invalidity sustained, but raw-material restriction for a soya plant upheld.

A statutory proviso already declared ultra vires could not be sustained, and the challenge to proviso (a) to section 18(8) of the M.P. General Sales Tax Act, 1958 therefore succeeded. However, the exclusion of major oil-seeds from the eligibility certificate, and the corresponding amendment to the registration certificate, was consistent with the unit's classification as a soya bean extracting plant and with the exemption scheme; that condition was upheld. The result was only partial success on the statutory challenge, while the remaining reliefs were refused and the refund direction followed from that limited success.

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Issues: (i) Whether proviso (a) to section 18(8) of the M.P. General Sales Tax Act, 1958 was ultra vires; (ii) whether the condition excluding major oil-seeds from the petitioner's eligibility certificate and the consequential amendment to the registration certificate were illegal.

Issue (i): Whether proviso (a) to section 18(8) of the M.P. General Sales Tax Act, 1958 was ultra vires.

Analysis: The provision had already been declared ultra vires by the Court in earlier litigation. In view of that binding declaration, the challenge to the proviso did not require fresh examination on merits.

Conclusion: The proviso was held to be ultra vires.

Issue (ii): Whether the condition excluding major oil-seeds from the petitioner's eligibility certificate and the consequential amendment to the registration certificate were illegal.

Analysis: The petitioner's unit was treated as a soya bean extracting plant and the materials on record showed that it was not intended to use major oil-seeds such as groundnuts or mahua seeds. The impugned exclusion was therefore aligned with the industrial classification and the eligibility certificate, and no illegality was found in the corrective amendment to the registration certificate.

Conclusion: The exclusion of major oil-seeds and the corresponding amendment were upheld.

Final Conclusion: The petition succeeded only to the extent of the challenge to the statutory proviso, while the remaining reliefs were declined and the consequential refund direction followed from the partial success.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory proviso already declared ultra vires cannot be sustained, but an eligibility condition consistent with the industrial classification of the unit and the governing exemption scheme will not be struck down merely because it limits the raw material description.

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