H ANRAJ DIPAK DHAR Vs. GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU:STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Writ Petitions and the Civil Appeal raise a common question of law, namely, whether sales tax can be levied by a State Legislature on the sale of the Lottery Tickets in the concerned State

(2.) The facts giving rise to the aforesaid question lie in a narrow compass and in the writ petitions the question arises, out of the levy imposed for the first time on such sales of lottery tickets by an amendment made in the Tamil Nadu General Sales-tax Act 1959 with effect from January, 28, 1984 while in the civil appeal it arises out of a similar levy imposed for the first time by making suitable amendments in the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 with effect from May, 1, 1984.

(3.) Indisputably the subject of "Lotteries" organised either by the Government of India or by the Government of a State falls within the Union List (Entry 40 of List I) but in the absence of any law having been enacted by the Parliament on the subject the running of lotteries could be done by the Government of various States only under Art. 258(1) of the Constitution on entrustment of that function by the Union to the concerned State. Accordingly at the instance of the Tamil Nadu Government which proposed to organise its own State Lottery the Central Government entrusted that function to the State Government by means of a Presidential Order dated October, 27, 1971, the operative part whereof ran thus :