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Taxing proviso. can't be faulted on touchstone of Art. 14, HC
Taxing proviso. can't be faulted on touchstone of Art. 14, HC
"Present petition talks 'constitutional validity' of the 'service tax' levied on the 'taxable service' provided to a client by an 'advertising agency' in relation to 'advertisements'. HC held, we are in respectful agreement with the Division Bench in holding that the taxing provisions cannot be faulted on the touchstone of article 14 or on the principle of 'legislative competence."-900113
Facts in Brief:
1. Petition involved regarding the 'constitutional validity' of the 'service tax' levied on the 'taxable service' provided to a client by an 'advertising agency' in relation to 'advertisements'.
2. All the petitioners herein are interested in the business of advertisement. Some of them are 'advertising firms' while the others are owning hoardings in the city for the purposes of exhibiting the advertisements. Henceforth, the petitioners would be referred to in this judgment as, advertising agency' for the sake of brevity.
3. All the petitioners herein are interested in the business of advertisement. Some of them are 'advertising firms' while the others are owning hoardings in the city for the purposes of exhibiting the advertisements. Henceforth, the petitioners would be referred to in this judgment as, advertising agency' for the sake of brevity.
HC held as under,
4. In our opinion, the learned counsel is right when he says, the constitutional validity of the taxing provision could not be decided on the basis of the 'measure of the tax'. Even otherwise, in our opinion, the question raised by the learned counsel would not be apposite to decide the constitutional validity of the provisions much less under article 14 of the Constitution of India. We do not see any 'discriminatory' in the relevant provisions.
5. The learned counsel for the respondents invited our attention to the Division Bench judgment of the Gujarat High Court in Addition Advertising's ease (supra) wherein the provisions were challenged on the ground of violation of article 14 and article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India as also on the ground of 'legislative competence'. The challenges were repelled by the Division Bench. We are in respectful agreement with the Division Bench in holding that the taxing provisions cannot be faulted on the touchstone of article 14 or on the principle of 'legislative competence'.
6. In our view, the petitions have no merits and must be dismissed.
Case Reference - Advertising Club vs Central Board Of Excise.
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