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1979 (4) TMI 156 - SUPREME COURTWhether Parliament had the power to impose special duty on the import of country liquor in Delhi? Held that:- if excise or countervailing duty could be levied on country liquor manufactured or imported into Delhi, albeit other conditions for the levy of such duty being fulfilled, Parliament would not lack competence to levy the same only because levy of such duty on alcoholic liquors for human consumption is within the competence of a State. Merely because Parliament could not levy countervailing duty on country liquor imported into Delhi because country liquor is not manufactured in Delhi, it does not exhaust the power of Parliament to levy some other duty on the import of liquor if it is otherwise constitutionally permissible. The present levy under the amended provisions of the Act in its application to Delhi could certainly be said to be one enacted both with the object of regulating the trade or business in intoxicants and with a view to realising the goal fixed in Article 47 of the Constitution Therefore, one can look upon this measure both as a fiscal measure and the one safeguarding public health and even public morals because it is well recognised that liquor trade is instinct with injury to individual and community and has serious side-effects recognised everywhere in every age. Therefore, there is no substance in the contention that the retrospectivity of the Ordinance is illegal and invalid. Appeal dismissed.
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