Commissioner, Quilon Municipality, Quilon, and Another v. M/S. Harrisons & Crosfield Ltd.
Case brief
What is this about?
Profession tax; Article 276(2) Rs. 250 per annum ceiling; validating act; retrospective operation of rules; s. 325 rule-making power; machinery versus basis and incidence of taxation; Travancore District Municipalities Act 23 of 1116 M.E.; Quilon Municipality; Harrisons & Crosfield; substitution of Indian Income-tax Act 1922 for Travancore Income-tax Act; incompetence of legislature to validate post-Constitution tax; Jadao Bahuji v. Municipal Committee Khandwa distinguished; Kerala Profession Tax (Validation and Re-assessment) Act 1958 s. 2.
What did the court decide?
The proviso to rule 18(2) introduced in 1947 was not a mere machinery provision: it took income-tax assessees out of the uniform class dealt with by sub-rule (2) and created a new class of assessees, introduced a new basis of assessment by linking profession-tax income to profits disclosed in income-tax assessments for the whole State, and was likely to result in a different incidence of tax liability; it therefore affected the basis of assessment and not merely the procedure.