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TMI Blog1961 (3) TMI 133X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... resent appellant, and demanded and recovered the tax for 1923-24. The appellant then filed a second suit for refund of the tax paid by her on the ground that the imposition of the tax was illegal and ultra vires. The suits had varying fortunes in the Courts in India, till they reached the Privy Council. The Judicial Committee by its first decision remitted the cases for additional evidence, while the appeals were kept pending. The decision of the Judicial Committee is reported in Radhakishan Jaikishan v. Khandwa Municipal Committee (1933) L.R. 61 IndAp 125. After the additional evidence was received, the Judicial Committee pronounced its decision, which is reported in Radhakishan Jaikishan v. Municipal Committee, Khandwa (1937) L.R. 64 I.A 118. The Judicial Committee held that the tax was not validly imposed by the Municipal Committee, and reversing the decree of the Judicial Commissioner, decreed the suits. 3. The Provincial Legislature then passed the Khandwa Ginning and Pressing Cotton Tax Validating Act 8 of 1938, validating the tax. The Act contained only one operative section, which read as follows : "2. Notwithstanding anything contained in the Central Provinces Mu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the commencement of this Act on account of the said tax is less than the aggregate of the sum recoverable from such person, the balance shall be payable to the said Municipal Committee on demand made at any time after the commencement of this Act and, if not paid within fifteen days from the date of the demand, shall be recoverable by any method available under the Central Provinces Municipalities Act, 1922, for the recovery of a tax imposed thereunder or by such other method as the Provincial Government may by rule prescribe." 4. For the purposes of section 3 the net sum recovered from any person means the aggregate sum recovered from such person less any sum refunded to him and less so much of the amount of any decree of order for the payment of money executed by him against the said Municipal Committee as represents an amount previously paid by him on account of the said tax. 5. Nothing in this Act shall preclude the execution against the said Municipal Committee of any decree or order for the payment of money arising out of a payment on account of the said tax but upon the execution of such decree or order so much of the amount thereof as represents a sum previously ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f taxes on professions, trades, callings, and employments shall not, after the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, exceed fifty rupees per annum : Provided that if in the financial year ending with that date there was in force in the case of any Province of any such municipality, board or authority a tax on professions, trades, callings, or employments the rate, or the maximum rate, of which exceeded fifty rupees per annum, the preceding provisions of this sub-section shall, unless for the time being provision to the contrary is made by a law of the Federal Legislature, have effect in relation to that Province, municipality, board or authority as if for the reference to fifty rupees per annum there were substituted a reference to the rate or maximum rate, or such lower rate, if any, (being a rate greater than fifty rupees per annum) as may for the time being be fixed by a law of the Federal Legislature; and any law of the Federal Legislature made for any of the purposes of this proviso may be made either generally or in relation to any specified Provinces, municipalities, boards or authorities. (3) The fact that the Provincial Legislature has power to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... India from giving retrospective effect to measures passed by them. There have been numerous occasions on which retrospective laws were passed, which were upheld by the Federal Court and also by this Court. It is not necessary to cite instances, but we refer only to the decision in M.P.V. Sundararamier & Co. v. The State of Andhra Pradesh [1958]1SCR1422 , where this Court approved the dictum of the Federal Court. 13. Retrospective legislation being thus open to the Provincial Legislatures, the Act of the Governor had the same force. Retrospective laws, it has been held, can validate an Act, which contains some defect in its enactment. Examples of Validating Acts which rendered inoperative, decrees or orders of the Court or alternatively made them valid and effective, are many. In Atiqa Begum's case [1940] F.C.R. 110, the power of validating defective laws was held to be ancillary and subsidiary to the powers conferred by the Entries and to be included in those powers. Later, the Federal Court in Piare Dusadh v. King Emperor [1944] F.C.R. 61 considered the matter fully, and held that the powers of the Governor-General which were conterminous with those of the Central Legislatur ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ist, and also if unlimited in amount, might become a second tax on income to be levied by the Provinces. It was to remove these contingencies that s. 142-A was enacted. Sub-section (1) provided that a tax on professions, etc., would not be invalid on the ground that it related to a tax on income. Sub-section (3) was a counter-part of sub-s. (1), and provided that the generality of the Entry in the Federal Legislative List relating to taxes on income would not be construed as in any way limited by the power of the Provincial Legislature to levy a tax on professions, etc. The fields of the two taxes were thus demarcated. No other implication arises from these two sub-sections. 17. It was also apprehended that under the guise of taxes on professions, etc., the Provincial Legislatures might start their own scheme of a tax on income, thus subjecting incomes from professions etc., to an additional tax of the nature of income-tax. A limit was therefore placed upon the amount which could be collected by way of tax on professions, etc., and that limit was ₹ 50 per annum per person. The second sub-section achieved this result. It was, however, realised that the tax being an old tax, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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