Luxury tax cannot apply to a charitable hospital dharmashala run as an incidental, nominal-charge facility.

Luxury tax under the Madhya Pradesh Hotel Tatha Vas Grihon Me Vilas Vastuon, Par Kar Adhiniyam, 1988 applies only where accommodation is provided in a hotel in the course of business. A charitable hospital trust's dharmashala for patients' attendants and relatives, run on nominal charges and on a no profit no loss basis as an incidental facility to the hospital, did not satisfy the statutory definition of hotel or hotel business. Since the basic charging condition was absent, the levy could not be sustained and the assessment and revisional orders were set aside.

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Issues: Whether a charitable hospital trust running a dharmashala for patients' attendants and relatives on nominal charges could be treated as a "hotel" or "hotelier" so as to attract luxury tax under the Madhya Pradesh Hotel Tatha Vas Grihon Me Vilas Vastuon, Par Kar Adhiniyam, 1988.

Analysis: The charging scheme under sections 3 and 4 applies only where luxury is provided in a hotel, and section 2(c) defines hotel as a residential accommodation, lodging house, inn or similar premises where accommodation is provided in the course of business. The trust's main object was running a hospital, and the dharmashala was only an incidental facility for patients' attendants and relatives on nominal charges and on a no profit no loss basis. A hospital of this nature could not be equated with a hotel merely because accommodation was provided. Since the basic charging condition was absent, the levy could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The trust was not liable to luxury tax, because the dharmashala attached to the hospital did not amount to a hotel or hotel business under the Act.

Final Conclusion: The impugned assessment and revisional orders were set aside and the respondents were restrained from applying the Luxury Tax Act, 1988 to the petitioner in relation to the dharmashala activity.

Ratio Decidendi: Luxury tax under the Act is leviable only when accommodation is provided in a hotel in the course of business, and a charitable hospital's incidental dharmashala run on nominal charges does not satisfy that charging condition.

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