1974 (11) TMI 102

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....of certificates of fitness by the High Court of Kerala have been heard together ,and. are being disposed of by a common judgment as their facts and the points involved in them are identical. The respondents filed various writ petitions questioning the validity of the orders of the State Government of Kerala levying administrative surcharge on the export of tapioca. Respondents are dealers in tapioca and do the business of exporting it also outside the State of Kerala. In their writ petition, they also claimed refund of the amounts realised by the State Government on the basis of the impugned orders. Writ petitions were allowed by a bench of the Kerala-High Court and Civil Appeals 729-757 of 1972 are directed against the orders in the writ P....

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....th April, 1966 was given to us by the- learned Solicitor General appearing for the appellant State. The respondents' plea that the levy of, administrative charges, was ultra vires the State Government and unwarranted by law has been accepted by the Kerala High Court. Learned Solicitor General appearing for the appellant State submitted that the orders levying administrative charge on the export of. tapioca, was, in effect and substance a licence fee charged in the exercise of the police powers of the State for permitting the respondents by grant of permits to export tapioca. Such a levy counsel submitted, can very well be supported with reference to the provisions of sub-section (1) or subsection( 2) of 53 the Act, whereby the State as a re....

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....ees for grant of issue of licences/permits or other documents in accordance with clause (ii) of sub-section(2) of Section 3 of the Act. Still we find that the impugned levies have rightly been held to be bad as they were not levies of licence fees for regulating the trade or for grant of permits. The order dated 15th April, 1966 formulating the scheme was not an order under any of the provisions of section is 3 of the Act. It did not impose any licence fee or fee for grant of permit. It merely provided for levying of administrative surcharge for the export of tapioca and its products at the specified rates which varied from time to time. In substance and in effect it was an impost on export which indisputably the State had no power to do. T....