1974 (10) TMI 88

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..... by the same assessee but in relation to different assessment years 1969-70, 1970-71 and 1971-72. For all the said assessment years, the petitioner has been assessed on their sales of car seat covers at the rate of 13 per cent treating the sales as coming under item 3 of the First Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959. The assessee had contended before the assessing authority that .....

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..... 1970-71 the appeal before the appellate authority is still pending. The common point that has been urged in relation to the assessments for all the three years is that the car seat covers cannot be assessed at a higher rate of tax, treating them as accessories of automobiles. So far as this question is concerned it is seen that the point is covered by the decisions of this court in Khetty Traders .....

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..... nd, therefore, offend article 14 of the Constitution. The learned counsel contends that seat covers made out of the same material are treated as accessories of cars, cycles and tractors and taxed at 13 per cent, 6 per cent and 7 per cent under items 3, 38 and 55 respectively, that the provision for different rates of tax for articles made out of the same material is clearly discriminatory, though .....

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..... has been manufactured. Various rates of tax have been prescribed under the above items only with reference to its use. There cannot be any dispute that the legislature has got wide latitude in the matter of selection of articles for levy of tax and of imposition of rates of tax. It has been held by the Supreme Court in V. Venugopala Ravi Varma Rajah v. Union of India[1969] 74 I.T.R. 49 at 55 (S.C .....

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..... on, which leads to obvious inequality. It is for the legislature to determine the objects on which tax shall be levied, and the rates thereof. The courts will not strike down an Act as denying the equal protection of laws merely because other objects could have been, but are not, taxed by the legislature." We are not therefore in a position to accept the contention of the learned counsel that th .....

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