- (1.) In these writ petitions, petitioners who are Direct-to-Home Service Providers (DTH), seek to declare the provisions of the Jharkhand Entertainment Tax Act, 2012 in general and in particular, Section 3 thereof as ultra vires the Constitution of India in so far as the impugned Act seeks to impose entertainment tax on Direct-To-Home services (DTH) and to quash the notification S.O. No. 3 dated 14.05.2012 whereby Jharkhand Entertainment Tax Act, 2012 has been implemented with retrospective effect from 27.04.2012. Petitioners have also impugned the notices calling upon them to deposit entertainment tax and to show cause why action should not be taken against them. This judgment shall dispose of all the writ petitions as all the petitions involve common question. We refer to the facts in W.P.(T) No. 909 of 2013 where the writ petitioner is Tata Sky Limited.
(2.) Averments in the writ petition:- Petitioner is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956. It provides DTH broadcasting services to the subscribers across the country. The Government of India has granted licence to the petitioner under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and under Section 5 of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 on the terms and conditions contained in the licence agreement for a period of ten years. The petitioner has paid Rs. 10 crores as licence fee and has also furnished a bank guarantee of Rs. 40 crores (Rs. 40,00,00,000/-) to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as security which is valid for the entire period of the licence. The terms in the licence further provide for payment of annual fee equivalent to 10% of its gross revenue as reflected in the audited accounts of the company for that particular financial year within one month from the end of that financial year. Pursuant to the fulfillment of the eligibility conditions, as per guidelines for uplinking from India notified on 02.12.2005, the petitioner has also been granted permission on non-exclusive basis for a period of ten years to establish, maintain and operate an uplinking hub.
(3.) The petitioner launched its services throughout India from August, 2006. The petitioner has established transponders which downlink signals of various channels and uplink them, the DTH apparatus installed at the subscribers premises cumulatively decode the transmissions and therefore, lets the end consumer access various channels providing sounds and images without the presence of an intermediary like cable TV operators. The petitioner has the broadcasting centre at Chhatarpur, Delhi, which downlinks the signals from satellite and then uplinks to the designated transponders for transmission of signals in Ku-band. These signals are received by the Dish Antenna installed at the subscriber's premises. The TV signals transmitted from the broadcasting centre at Chhatarpur are in encrypted format and are then decrypted/decoded by Set Top Box and the viewing cards inside the Set Top Box for the customers to be able to view the services. The subscribers have to obtain a connection towards which they pay monthly subscription charges for availing the DTH service at their premises.;