Statutory authority for entertainment tax was absent for DTH services under the unamended tax law, so the levy failed.

Entertainment tax could not be levied on DTH service providers under the unamended U.P. Entertainments and Betting Tax Act, 1979 because the statute, as it stood at the relevant time, contained no provision authorising such a levy. The later amendment specifically including DTH broadcasting within the definition of entertainment confirmed that the earlier law did not cover it. Any issue of overlap between State entertainment tax and Union service tax became academic once the absence of statutory authority was established. The levy therefore failed for want of express legislative backing, and the assessee succeeded.

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Issues: Whether, on the law as it stood at the relevant time, entertainment tax could be levied on DTH service providers under the U.P. Entertainments and Betting Tax Act, 1979.

Analysis: The existing text of the 1979 Act did not contain any provision authorising levy of entertainment tax on DTH service providers. The later amendment, by which DTH broadcasting service was specifically brought within the statutory definition of entertainment, showed that such coverage was absent earlier. The question of overlapping legislative fields between State power to levy entertainment tax and Union power to levy service tax did not survive independently once the statutory source for the levy itself was found wanting, and was therefore only academic.

Conclusion: No entertainment tax could validly be levied on DTH service providers under the unamended 1979 Act; the finding was in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The levy failed for want of statutory authority under the pre-amendment regime, and the challenge to the State action succeeded on that ground alone.

Ratio Decidendi: A tax levy cannot be sustained unless the governing statute, as it stood at the relevant time, expressly authorises that levy.

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