2008 (12) TMI 731

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.... The short question which arises for determination in these Civil Appeals concerns challenge to the Constitutional validity of Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Act, 1998, by which initially the rate of tax in respect of contract carriage stood increased from ₹ 1500/- per seat per quarter to ₹ 2000/- per seat per quarter, and subsequently the said rate stood enhanced from ....

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....d of challenge from the side of the appellants based on some statistical data as to disproportionality of the rate of tax. It is only thereafter that the burden will shift on to the State to submit quantifiable and measurable data. 5. In the present case we find that the initial burden on the appellants itself has not been discharged in the sense that the petitions filed before the High Court wer....

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.... SCC 241]. 7. In our view, this repeated increase in the rate of tax, particularly the incidence of which is more on the contract carriage vis.-a.vis. stage carriage raises question of public importance. At the same time the State can certainly rely upon the data available to show cross subsidization, if it so exists in a given case, by which stage carriage gets subsidized in public interest. 8.....

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....by this Court in the case of Jindal Stainless Ltd. (Supra). 10. In the circumstances we permit the appellants herein to withdraw the Civil Appeals with liberty to file proper writ petition, if so advised. We make it clear that we do not find any infirmity in the impugned judgment of the High Court which is based on the petition originally filed by the petitioners. Subject to above, Civil Appeals....