TMI Blog1942 (3) TMI 16X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ax which the Provincial Legislature has power to impose in the Province under the Government of India Act, 1935 . In April, 1938, the Appellant who, under Section 238 of the Municipal Act, had been exercising the powers of the superseded Municipality of Lahore published a notification imposing octroi duties at varying rates on goods imported into Lahore, and salt was one of the commodities specified in the schedule under the heading articles of food and drink In October 1939, the Respondent brought two maunds of salt into the municipal limits and, with the evident object of making it a test case, he paid the duty under protest and later applied for refund of the amount. When the matter was taken on appeal to the Deputy Commissioner, under ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nicipal Act relating to the corporate character of the Committee and the manner of suing must be read subject to the provisions of Section 238(2) which lays down the consequences of a supersession. It may be (as held in Mahamahopadyaya Rangachariar v. The Municipal Council of Kumbakonam I.L.R. [1906] Mad. 539, that a supersession has not the effects of a dissolution and that when another Committee is constituted in the place of the superseded Committee, it is a revival of the old corporation and not the creation of a new one. But during the period when the order of supersession is in force, the statute makes it clear that all the members of the Committee vacate their seats and that all the powers and duties of the Committee are to be exerci ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... respect to salt, since salt is one of the matters enumerated in List I. Both these contentions were upheld by the learned Judge who dealt with the caso in the Higli Court and he was also of the opinion that Section 140(1) of the Constitution Act lent some support to this view. 4. In support of this appeal, it has been contended by the Advocate-General of the Punjab that the learned Judge erred in treating entry No. 47 in List I. as the source of the Central Legislature's authority to impose any duty or tax on salt, and that he also erred in relying upon Section 140 as though it were a charging section. By a reference to various entries in Lists I and II counsel attempted to show that, whenever a power to tax was intended to be con ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... charging section and that it occurs in a chapter dealing with the distribution of revenues between the Federation and the federal units. But the express mention in that section of duties on salt separately from federal duties of excise and export duties rather suggests that duties on salt were not contemplated as falling under entries Nos. 44 and 45 of List L' Counsel suggested that the separate reference to duties on salt might have been made with a view to include import duties thereon under the heads of revenue divisible among the federal units. This is a possible explanation; but it is nevertheless difficult to get rid of the impression that duties on salt were regarded as a category by themselves not comprised under the headin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... taxation, Parliament should have desired that the Central Government and the Central Legislature should retain exclusive control over salt and to prohibit any kind of interference with it by Provincial Legislatures. It is, for instance, common knowledge that public opinion in this country has always insisted that salt should be made available to the people at the lowest possible price; but the recognition of a power in the Provincial Legislature to impose duties on salt, whether for the benefit of provincial revenues or for the benefit of local authorities, might materially affect the policy of the Central Government in this respect. 7. It is noteworthy that in respect of opium and petroleum, the exclusive jurisdiction of the Centre is l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 37] A.C. 863, and see also observations in Att.-Gen. for the Dominion of Canada v. Atts.-Gen. for the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia [1898] A.C. 700, at p. 716. But that question does not arise in the present case. When taxes are imposed specifically upon a number of items, only some of which are within the jurisdiction of the Legislature which imposes them, the validity of each impost can be dealt with by itself and there is no question of the one affecting the other. The situation is not parallel to one in which legislation whose main object or pith and substance is legitimate is sought to be invalidated merely on the ground that it incidentally affects something outside the sphere permitted to the Legislature which has enac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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