1969 (4) TMI 107 - SUPREME COURT

Whether the Gold (Control) Act, 1968 (Act No. 45 of 1968) is constitutionally valid?

Held that:- the provisions held to be invalid are not inextricably bound up with the remaining provisions of the Act. It is difficult to hold that Parliament would not have enacted the impugned Act at all without including that part which is found to be ultra vires. The Act still remains substantially the Act as it was passed, that is, an Act to provide for the control, production, manufacture, supply, distribution, use and possession of gold and gold ornaments and articles of gold. In the result we hold that the following provisions of the impugned Act are invalid.

Sections 5(2)(b), 27(2)(d), 27(6), 32, 46, 88 and 1 00.

The petitioners are, therefore, entitled to a writ in the nature of mandamus under Art. 32 of -the Constitution commanding the respondents not to take any steps to implement any of the invalid provisions of the Act. Writ Petitions 282, 407 and 408 of 1968 are allowed to this extent.