KH ABDUL REHMAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners have filed this writ petition for declaring the Compulsory Deposit Scheme (Income Tax Payers) Act, 1974 to have been passed without jurisdiction, and as such not applicable to the State of J&K.

(2.) THE Learned counsel for the Union of India, Mr. K. N. Raina. has instead of filing a reply affidavit, openly at the bar conceded the legal position on the basis of which the writ petition has been filed. In fact it was he, who drew the attention of the court to various Entries in the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, especially to the Entry 20 and to the Entry 97. His argument is that these Entries, especially Entry 20 was not applicable to the State of J&K and Entry 97 though applicable to this State of J&K in a modified form, it would not cover the impugned Act, and, under these circumstances without following the procedure laid down in Art. 370, the impugned Act could not have been made applicable to the State of J&K.

(3.) IT has also been submitted by -the learned counsel for the Union of India that the impugned Act came into force in 1975 when the Proclamation of Emergency was in force, by virtue of Art. 370 applicable to this State, the Parliament had powers to legislate for the State in relation to matters not enumerated in the Union List, as applicable to the State of J&K. The Emergency was, however, revoked in 1977 and the impugned Act having been given effect during the Emergency, ceases to have effect on the expiry of six months after the proclamation of emergency ceased to operate. As such also the impugned Act was no longer in force in the State of J&K.