1999 (10) TMI 722

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.....P. AND HEGDE, N. SANTOSH, JJ. JUDGEMENT BHARUCHA, J. Civil Appeal Nos. 6466-6476 of 1995 : Under challenge by the State of Himachal Pradesh is the judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh delivered on writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution to challenge amendments to the Himachal Pradesh Passengers and Goods Taxation Act, 1955 and the Rules frame....

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....viso thereto, which is under challenge, reads : "Provided further that in case of motor vehicles (including the stage or contract carriages), other than those specified in the first proviso, in which the passengers are carried, the State Government may assess the tax....... at lump sum in the manner prescribed,taking into consideration the registered capacity of the vehicle and the distance ....

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....his Court, in M/s. Sainik Motors, Jodhpur and Ors. v. The State of Rajasthan, [1962] 1 SCR 517, upheld the proviso for the reason that "payment to lump sum is not obligatory, and a person can elect to pay tax calculated on actual fares and freights....There is no compulsion for any operator to elect to pay a lump sum if he does not choose to do so." As far as the said Act, as it now sta....

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.... no generalisation of tax that can be levied under Section 3. It can only be levied with due regard to all fares in respect of all passengers carried by the particular operator. No hypothetical assumption can be made about how many passengers an operator has carried. The amendment of the said Section 4, by the inclusion of the proviso quoted above, is beyond the scope of the said Act. It is, there....