TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1976 (5) TMI 97
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....e provisions of section 31, the Excise Commissioner may grant to any person a licence for the exclusive privilege- (1) of manufacturing or of supplying by wholesale, or of both, or (2) of selling by wholesale or by retail, or (3) of manufacturing or of supplying by wholesale, or of both and or selling by retail any country liquor or intoxicating drug within any local area. Section 31 provides that every licence, permit or pass granted under the Act shall be granted- (a) on payment of Such fee (if any); (b) subject to such restrictions and on such conditions; (c) shall be in such form and contain such particulars, as the Excise Commissioner may direct either generally or in any particular instance in this behalf; and (d) shall be granted for such period as the State Government may, in like manner, direct. Section 33 of The Act invests the authority granting a licence under the Act to require the grantee to execute a counterpart a agreement in conformity with the tenor of his licence and to give such security for the performance of such agreement or to make such deposit in lieu of security as such authority may think fit. Section 28 of the Act which deal....
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....f country liquor granted vide Notification No. ST 1149/X- 802(33)-51 dated April 6,, 1959. issued under section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 was or was not likely to be withdrawn. The respondents herein participated in the aforesaid auctions and being the highest bidders were granted licences for retail sale of country spirit for the period beginning from April t, 1969 to the end of March., 1970. Each one of these licences contained infer alia the following condition:- "3. (a) The licensee shall lift each month the proportionate quota for the month, if any, fixed for his vend and deposit still head duty realisable thereon. On his failure to lift the monthly proportionate quota in any month, he shall be liable to pay compensation to the State Government at the rate equal to the rate of still-head duty per litre of spiced spirit and still head duty per litre of plain spirit as may be in the area in which the shop is situated on the quantity falling short of such monthly proportionate quota and such com pensation shall be paid by the 7th of the month following the month to which such shortfall relaters. (b) He shall be bound to sell the whole quantity of country spirit o....
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....1975 also challenged Notification No. ST-1608/X-900(12)/67 (dated April 2, 1969) (supra) which superseded the earlier Notification No. ST 1149/X-802(33)51 dated April 6, 1959 and imposed sales tax on the turnover in respect of the country. liquor at the rate of ten paise per rupee at the point of retail sale by the vendor with effect from April 2, 1969 on the ground that since the state Government did not announce at the time of the aforesaid auction that Notification No. ST 1149/X-802(33)51 dated April 6, 1959, was likely to be withdrawn and the sales of country. liquor were likely to be subjected to the levy of sales tax during the excise year and in reply to the query made by them at the time of the auction they were told by the authorities that there was no sales tax of the sale of country liquor. the appellants herein were estopped from making the demand in respect of sales tax and recovering the same from them. The High Court allowed all these petitions in toto. Having failed to secure certificates of fitness from the High Court, the appellants applied for and obtained special leave to appeal from this Court. The common question of law that arises for determination in all ....
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.... is in reality a demand for excise duty on the unlifted quantity of liquor which is not authorised by the provisions of the Act. This being the sole point involved in appeals other than Appeals Nos. 399 to 404 of 1975 the former Appeals cannot succeed. In the result they are dismissed with costs. Appeals Nos. 399 to 404 of 1975 which raise another point as well viz. the validity of the appellants' demand from the respondents in respect of sales tax at the rate of ten paise per rupee on the retail sales of country spirit made by the latter with effect from April 2, 1969 stand on a slightly different footing. Section 3-A and 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 clearly authorise the State Government to impose sales tax. The fact that sales of country liquor had been exempted from sales tax vide Notification No. ST 1149/X-802(33)-51 dated April 6 1959 could not operate as an estoppel against the State Government and preclude it from subjecting the sales to tax if it felt impelled to do so in the interest of the Revenues of the State which are required for execution of the plans designed to meet the ever increasing pressing needs of the developing society. It is now well settled by....
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....r the matter and assuring the appellant who had been serving on the army that his disability had been accepted as attributable to military service bound the Crown and through the Crown the Minister of Pensions, who while administering the Royal warrant issued by the Crown has to honour all assurances given by or on behalf of the Crown were unequivocally disapproved by observing that the character or an act done by an officer of a Government, however high or low in the hierarchy in face of a statutory prohibition, is not affected by the fact that it had been induced by a misleading assumption of authority and neither a Minister. nor any subordinate officer of the Crown can, by conduct or representation, bar the Crown from enforcing a statutory prohibition. It was held by Bench of this Court ill Assistant Custodian Exacuee Property and ors. v. Brij Kishore Agarwala and Ors([1975] 1 S.C C. 21) that the Evacuee Department was not bound by the reply given by the Assistant Custodian to the first respondent's enquiry that the property in question was not an evacuee property. Following the above decision. the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir has in Malhotra and Sons and Ors. v. Union of I....