Ashok Bhan, J. - (1.) This appeal by grant of leave is directed against the judgment and order of the High Court of Bombay, Bench at Nagpur, in Writ Petition No. 314 of 1993. The High Court in the impugned judgment has upheld the validity of provisions of Section 9-A of the Bombay Money Lenders Act, 1946 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) as amended by Maharashtra Act No. 7 of 1992 which, according to the appellants, who are licensed money lenders, is ultra vires the provisions of the Constitution of India insofar as it seeks to levy inspection fee for the renewal of money lenders licence. Appellants therefore seek striking down of Section 9-A of the Act and consequent thereto the quashing of the demand notice for payment of inspection fee.
(2.) Under Section 3 of the Act, the State Government has the power to appoint Registrar General, Registrars and Assistant Registrars for the purpose of exercising powers and performing duties under the Act. Under Section 6 every money lender has to submit an application in the prescribed form to the Assistant Registrar of the area, within the limits of which he carries on or intends to carry on his business, for the grant of licence to carry on business of money lending every year on or before such date as may be prescribed by the State Government. The money lender is required to deposit licence fee (which has been fixed at Rs. 200/-) as per the provisions of sub-section (4) of Section 6 of the Act. The application so made is required to be processed under Section 8 of the Act. Section 9 prescribes the term of licence to be up to 31st July from the date on which the licence is granted. The licence is made valid until the application for renewal of licence, if made to the Registrar within the prescribed time, is disposed of.
(3.) Section 9-A, in respect of levy of inspection fee, was introduced by Bombay Act No. 50 of 1959 which came into force w.e.f. 26-9-1959. The first amendment to Section 9-A was made by the Maharashtra Act No. 76 of 1975 which came into force from 26-7-1976. Section 9-A was amended for the second time by Maharashtra Act No. 7 of 1992 which came into force w.e.f. 28-4-1992. The amended provisions of Section 9-A, with which we are concerned in this appeal, are as under :- "9-A. Levy of inspection fee :- (1) An inspection fee shall, in addition to the licence fee leviable under Section 6, be levied from a money lender applying for a renewal of a licence at the rate of one per cent of the maximum capital utilised by him during the period of the licence sought to be renewed or rupees five thousand, whichever is lesser. (2) In default of payment of an inspection fee leviable under sub-section (1), it shall be recoverable from the defaulter in the same manner as an arrears of land revenue. Explanation - For the purposes of this section, "maximum capital" means the highest total amount of the capital sum which may remain invested in the money lending business on any day during the period of a licence." ;