https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=787344 Clause (d) of the proviso to Rule 5(1) of the West Bengal Excise (Change in Management) Rules, 2009 was held to offend Article 14 because it denied the usual-course-of-business exemption to private limited companies while extending a similar benefit to public limited companies, creating an arbitrary intra-class distinction without intelligible differentia or rational nexus. The 2020 substitution defining "change in management" was treated as a new provision, not a merely clarificatory amendment, and was therefore not retrospective. Applying constitutional avoidance, the provision was read up to preserve validity and extend the exemption consistently, rather than being struck down in full. en-us Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 03 Mar 2026 08:42:36 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=787344 Clause (d) of the proviso to Rule 5(1) of the West Bengal Excise (Change in Management) Rules, 2009 was held to offend Article 14 because it denied the usual-course-of-business exemption to private limited companies while extending a similar benefit to public limited companies, creating an arbitrary intra-class distinction without intelligible differentia or rational nexus. The 2020 substitution defining "change in management" was treated as a new provision, not a merely clarificatory amendment, and was therefore not retrospective. Applying constitutional avoidance, the provision was read up to preserve validity and extend the exemption consistently, rather than being struck down in full. Case-Laws Indian Laws Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=787344