- (1.) Common questions arise in this batch of civil appeals and the writ petition. All the appeals except one arise from the judgment of Calcutta High court dismissing the Writ Petitions filed by the appellants. Special Leave Petition No. 5466 of 1980 is preferred by the Inspector of Customs and central Excise (State) against the judgment of the Patna High court allowing the writ petition filed by the respondent, Rameshwar Jute Mills Limited. Writ Petition No. 9701 of 1982 is Filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by a jute mill questioning the notifications and notices issued by the respondents whereunder it was called upon to pay cess on jute yarn and twine. So are the other writ petitions. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the facts in Civil Appeal No. 2439 of 1979 and to the facts in Civilarising from Special Leave Petition No. 5466 of 1980. During the arguments before us, facts of these two cases alone were referred.
(2.) The appellant in civil no. 2439 of 1979, New central Jute Mills Company Ltd. , is a company engaged in manufacture of jute products like jute twine, yarn, sacking, carpet backing etc. Jute twine and jute yarn, manufactured by them is used in their own establishment for manufacturing other (finished) products. In other words, jute twine and jute yarn are intermediate products which are captively consumed in the same unit for manufacturing the end products which fall within the expression 'jute textiles'.
(3.) Jute Textile Industry is one of the industries specified in the First Schedule to the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the 'act'). The Act, as is well known, was enacted in 1951 to provide for the development and regulation of certain industries. S. 2 of the Act contains a declaration to the effect "that it is expedient in the public interest that the Union should take under its control the industries specified in the First Schedule". Heading No. 23 in the First Schedule reads as follows: "23. Textiles (including those dyed, printed or otherwise processed) : (1 Made wholly or in part of cotton, including cotton yarn, hosiery and rope; (2 Made wholly or in part of jute, including jute twine and rope; (3 Made wholly or in part of wool, including wool tops, woollen yarn, hosiery, carpets and druggets; (4 Made wholly or in part of silk, including silk yarn and hosiery; (5 Made wholly or in part of synthetic, artificial (man-made) Fibres, including yam and hosiery of such fibres. " (emphasis added);