JIYAJEERAO COTTON MILLS LIMITED BIRLANAGAR GWALIOR Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following Judgment of the court was delivered by

(2.) THIS is an appeal on a certificate of fitness granted by the High court of Madhya Pradesh under Art. 133 (1) (a) of the constitution.

(3.) IT is difficult to see how the levy of duty upon consumption of electrical energy can be regarded as duty of excise falling within Entry 84 of List I. Under that Entry what is permitted to Parliament is levy of duty of excise on manufacture or production of goods (other than those excepted expressly by that entry). The taxable event with respect to a duty of excise is `manufacture` or `production`. Here the taxable event is not production or generation of electrical energy but its consumption. If producer generates electrical energy and stores it up, he would not be required to pay any duty under the Act. IT is only when he sells, it or consumes it that he would be rendered liable to pay any duty prescribed by the Act. The central Provinces and Berar Electricity Act was enacted under Entry 48B of List II of the government of India act, 1935. The relevant portion of that Entry read thus: `Taxes on the consumption or sale of electricity.......... ` Entry 53 of List II of the Constitution is to the same effect. The argument of Mr. Sastri is that the word `consumption` should be accorded the meaning which it had under the various Act, including the Indian Electricity Act, 1980. Under that Act and under the various Provincial and Act, consumption of electricity mean, according to him, consumption by persons other than producers and that both in the government of India Act any under the Constitution the word 'consumption' must be deemed to have been used in the Fame sense. The Acts in question deal only with a certain aspect of the topic `'electricity`, and not with all of them. Therefore, in those Acts the word `consumption` they have a limited meaning, as pointed out by learned counsel. But the word `consumption` has a wider meaning. IT means also `use up` `spend` etc. The mere fact that a series of laws were concerned only with a certain kind of use of electricity, that is consumption of electricity by persons other than the producer cannot justify the conclusion that the British Parliament in using the word `consumption` in Entry 48B and the Constituent Assembly in Entry 53 of List he wanted to limit the meaning of `consumption` in the same way. The language used in the legislative entries in the Constitution must be interpreted in a broad way so as to give the widest amplitude of power to the legislature to legislate and not in a narrow and pedantic sense. we cannot, therefore, accept either of the two grounds urged by or. Viswanatha Sastri challenging the vires of the Act.