1964 (2) TMI 7

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....ct of North Malabar, governed by the Marumakkathayam law. The other four appeals arise out of writ petitions by karanavans of Hindu undivided families in Malabar and Cochin. These five writ petitions challenged the constitutionality of the Wealth-tax Act, No. 27 of 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) and prayed for the quashing of the wealth-tax assessments made in these cases. There are certain differences of facts in the five petitions, but we do not propose to refer to those differences as we propose to confine ourselves to the attack on the constitutionality of the Act. The main contentions of the respondents before the High Court with respect to the constitutionality of the Act were two-fold, namely---(1) that Parliament was n....

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....the contention of the appellant before the High Court was that muslim Mopla tarwads were so insignificant in number that their existence could be ignored and the practice of the appellant had been to assess such tarwads under the Act as individuals. The High Court however was not impressed by this contention on behalf of the appellant and said that it behoved the department to furnish some information to sustain the contention that Muslim Mopla tarwads were so insignificant in number as to be negligible and that had not been done. The High Court, therefore, finally held that there was discrimination as between Hindu undivided families and Muslim Mopla tarwads which were also undivided families and, therefore, the charging section in so far ....