Prakash Krishna, J. - (1.) THE present writ petition arises out of proceeding under a little known statute, namely, the Textile Committee (Cess) Act, 1963 and is directed against the order passed by the Textile Committee Cess Appellate Tribunal, Mumbai whereby the order passed by the assessing officer, Textile Committee, New Delhi demanding textile cess from the petitioner has been confirmed. The petitioner is engaged in the business of bleaching, dyeing and processing of 100 per cent, man -made cloths/fabrics, said to have been supplied to them from power loom industries only. The petitioner is also indulged in the trading of some part of fabrics processed by them on its own kind. The case of the petitioner is that the job work undertaken by them is not a process of manufacturing textile. Therefore, they are not liable to pay any cess under the Textiles Committee Act, a Central legislation, being Act No. 41 of 1963 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). For the assessment years 1997 -98 to 2000 -01 the assessing officer issued demand notices dated November 21, 2011 asking the petitioner to pay the cess amounting to Rs. 2,68,293 for the aforesaid four assessment years. The matter was carried in the appeal unsuccessfully before the Textile Committee Cess Appellate Tribunal, Mumbai. Hence the present writ petition.
(2.) THE ground of challenge in the writ petition is that the activity of the petitioner is exempted from payment of cess under the proviso to section 5A(1) of the Act. A counter -affidavit has been filed by the respondents wherein emphasis has been laid that the activity of processing and dyeing, printing, bleaching, etc., on textile amounts to manufacturing activity and as such the levy of cess in question is justified.
(3.) HEARD Shri Praveen Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri S.K. Mishra, learned counsel for the respondents.;