TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2008 (3) TMI 290
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....petitioner Society. The petitioner Society cannot, therefore, be said to be rendering any service as such to any outsider in particular, but the activities of the society also have the object in the nature of public service by taking effective steps for prevention and control of pollution and therefore, the petitioner Society would fall in clause (iii) "Many person or body of persons engaged in any activity having objects which are in the nature of public service and are of a charitable, religious or political nature" which is excluded from the purview of service tax under the provisions of Section 65(25a) of the Finance Act, 1994. 2. After hearing Mr SN Shelat learned Senior Advocate with Mr. Mitul Shelat for the petitioner Society and Mr....
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....-1210 and in Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry v. Pravinbhai Jashbhai Patel, 1997(1) GLH Page-136. Mr. Shelat has also invited our attention to the directions contained in the later judgment, whereby this Court directed that all the industrial units having pollution potential and located in GIDC estates at Vatva, Naroda and Odhav shall become members of the Common Effluent Treatment Plant in the concerned estate and such membership is mandatory irrespective of the fact whether a particular industrial unit has its own Secondary Effluent Treatment Plant or not. The Common Effluent Treatment Plant for all the industries in a particular area not only helps those industries to give the necessary secondary treatment to effluents being disc....
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....y the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation. The Central Government and the State Government accordingly gave subsidy of Rs.10.75 crores and the petitioner Society received from its members contribution of Rs.22.23 crores. 6. Mr. Shelat also points out that the Common Effluent Treatment Plant is a biological treatment plant in which the effluent generated from the factories of the member factory is provided treatment and the treated effluent is thereafter discharged to the river Sabarmati by means of a pipeline. The petitioner Society treats 30 crore litres effluents of the industrial units in Vatva every month and also handles 8000 metric ton of solid waste per month. The petitioner Society has recently entered into an agreement for ....
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....ntral Government and the State Government and the petitioner Society is engaged in the activity of ensuring a safe and cleaner environment by undertaking treatment of industrial effluents and industrial waste materials. This activity for ensuring protection of the environment is certainly an activity in public interest. Adherence to the principle of sustainable development has now attained the status of a constitutional mandate. It is, therefore, constitutional duty of the State to devise and implement a coherent and coordinated program to meet its obligation of sustainable development based on inter-generational equity as has been held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in A.K. Sarma v. Union of India, 1999 (2) SCC 178. 10. We are, therefor....