TMI Blog1968 (8) TMI 186X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ldings completed before that date may not violate Art. 14 of the Constituiton. The High Court was, in our judgment, right in holding that the charging section of the Act is violative of the equality clause of the Constitution. Appeals dismissed - Civil Appeals Nos. 1052, 1054 to 1058, 1060 to 1087, 1089 to 1095, 1097, 1100 to 1112, 1114 to 1118, 1120 to 1129, 1131 and 1133 to 1145 of 1968 - - - Dated:- 13-8-1968 - SHAH, J.C., RAMASWAMI, V. AND GROVER, A.N., JJ. JUDGMENT: For the Appellant : B.R.L. lyengar and ,A. G. Pudissery, For the Respondent : Sardar Bahadur, Vishnu Bahadur and yougindra Khushalani, H.R. Gokhale and J. B. Dadachanji, A.V.V. Nair, Lily Thomas, A. Sreedharan Nambiar, M.C. Chagla, 1. B. Dadachanji and Tho ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd buildings used principally for religious, charitable or educational purposes or as factories or workshops are exempt from payment of tax under the Act. By s. 4 it is provided that there shall be a charge to tax in respect of every building the construction of which is completed on or after March 2, 1961, and which has a floor area of one thousand square feet or more, and that the building tax shall be payable by the owner of the building. The Schedule to the Act sets out the rates of building tax. Buildings having a total floor area of less than 1,000 sq. ft. are not liable to pay tax. The Act, on a bare perusal, discloses some singular provisions. The liability to tax in respect of buildings having total floor area between 1,000 to 2,00 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... p except by authority of law: and the law must not only be within the legislative competence of the State, but it must also not be inconsistent with any provision of the Constitution. It has been frequently said by this Court that the validity of a taxing Statute is open to question on the ground that it infringes fundamental rights. In K.T. Moopil Nair V. State of Kerala,( [1961] 3 S.C.R. 77) Sinha, C.J., delivering the judgment of the majority observed at p. 89: "Article 265 imposes a limitation on the taxing power of the State in so far as it provides that the State shall not levy or collect a tax, except by authority of law, that is to say, a tax cannot be levied or collected by a mere executive fiat. It has to be done by a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... can adjust its system of taxation in all proper and reasonable ways Khandige Sham Bhat V. Agricultural Income-tax Officer([1963] 3 S.C.R. 809). But in enacting the Kerala Building Tax Act, no attempt at any rational classification is made by the Legislature. As already observed, the Legislature has not taken into consideration in imposing tax the class to which a building belongs, the nature of construction, the purpose for which it is used, its situation, its capacity for profitable user and other relevant circumstances which have a beating on matters of taxation. They have adopted merely the floor area of the building as the basis of tax irrespective of all other considerations. Where objects, persons or transactions essentially dissimil ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Rules under which the tax was sought to be levied on the basis of floor area were restricted in their operation to factory buildings within the Corporation limits of Ahmedabad, whereas Act 19 of 1961 which is challenged in the present case applies to the whole State of Kerala in respect of buildings completed on or after March 2, 1961, whatever may be the nature or class of the building, the use to which it is put, materials used in its construction and the extent of profitable user to which the building may be put, its cost and its economic rental. It is unnecessary in the circumstances to consider whether imposition of a tax only on buildings constructed after March 2, 1961, and exempting buildings completed before that date may not v ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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