K.K. Ramesh Versus The Union of India, The Secretary, Office of the GST Council Secretariat, New Delhi And The Commissioner, Commercial Tax Officer, Cheupakkam, Chennai
GST
2018 (3) TMI 1451 – MADRAS HIGH COURT – 2018 (11) G. S. T. L. 337 (Mad.) , [2018] 2 GSTL 81 (Mad)
MADRAS HIGH COURT – HC
Dated:- 15-3-2018
W. P. (MD) No. 5484 of 2018
GST
MR. M. SATHYANARAYANAN AND MRS. R. HEMALATHA, JJ.
For The Petitioner : Mr. K. K. Ramesh
For The Respondent : V. Kathirvelu and V. Jeya Kumar
ORDER
(Order of the Court was made by M. SATHYANARAYANAN,J. )
The present Writ Petition is filed as a 'Public Interest Litigation' by the petitioner/party-in-person, stating among other things, that Goods and Service Tax is based on two parliamentary Acts, namely the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act and the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, for the covered object of “One Nation One Tax” and the said Act came to be passed during April, 2017.
2. The grievan
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uld be brought within the ambit of Goods and Service Tax (GST) and also pointed out in this regard that the petitioner has submitted a representation, dated 16. 06. 2018 to the respondents and inspite of receipt and acknowledgment, no response is forthcoming and therefore, he is constrained to approach this Court by filing this Writ Petition.
4. Mr. V. Kathirvelu, learned Assistant Solicitor General of India, assisted by Mr. J. Jeyakumar, learned Central Government Standing Counsel, accepts notice on behalf of the respondents 1 to 5 and seeks time to get instructions as to the steps taken to bring the petroleum products within the ambit of Goods and Service Tax.
5. This Court has carefully considered the rival submissions and perused the materials placed on record.
6. The Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (Central Act 12 of 2017) (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), came to be passed “to make a provision for levy and collection of Tax on intra-State supply of goods
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sel, motor spirit (commonly known as petrol), natural gas and aviation turbine fuel shall be levied with effect from such date as may be notified by the Government on the recommendations of the Council.
(3) The Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, specify categories of supply of goods or services or both, the tax on which shall be paid on reverse charge basis by the recipient of such goods or services or both and all the provisions of this Act shall apply to such recipient as if he is the person liable for paying the tax in relation to the supply of such goods or services or both.
(4) The central tax in respect of the supply of taxable goods or services or both by a supplier, who is not registered, to a registered person shall be paid by such person on reverse charge basis as the recipient and all the provisions of this Act shall apply to such recipient as if he is the person liable for paying the tax in relation to the supply of such goods or s
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shall be liable to pay tax. ”
9. Section 11 of 'the Act' speaks about the 'power to grant exemption from Tax' and it is extracted below:-
“Power to grant exemption from Tax:- 11(1) Where the Government is satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, it may, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, exempt generally, either absolutely or subject to such conditions as may be specified therein, goods or services or both of any specified description from the whole or any part of the lax leviable thereon with effect from such date as may be specified in such notification.
(2) Where the Government is satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, it may, on the recommendations of the Council, by special order in each case, under circumstances of an exceptional nature to be stated in such order, exempt from payment of tax any goods or services or both on which tax is leviable.
(3) The Government may, if it considers
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erest Litigation', is that the petroleum and diesel should be brought forthwith within the ambit of Goods and Service Tax, so that the selling price would drastically reduce and as a consequence, the prices of the Goods and essential commodities would come down, which would ultimately benefit to the common people, especially poor and down trodden. No doubt, in the event of prices of essential commodities being brought down through a permanent mode, common man would definitely be benefited.
11. The primordial question that remains for consideration in this petition is whether this Court in exercise of its Jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India can issue any positive direction to the Goods and Central Services Tax council to bring petrol and diesel prices within the ambit of Goods and Service Tax?.
12. In the considered opinion of this Court, it cannot issue any direction for the reason that it is for the Goods and Service Tax council to take a call in that asp
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ations of the Goods and Central Tax council.
15. It is a well-settled position of law that “it is not for the Court to determine whether a particular policy or particular decision taken in the fulfillment of that policy is fair. It is only concerned with the manner in which those decisions have been taken and the extent of the duty to act fairly will vary from case to case” (Akhtar Hasan Khan and others Vs. Federation of Pakistan and others reported in 2012 (5) SCC (FJ) 12.
16. The policy decision can be interfered with only it is found to be arbitrary or based on an irrelevant consideration or malafide or against any statutory provisions (Centre for Public Interest Litigation Vs. Union of India and others reported in 2016 (6) SCC 408).
17. In the considered opinion of this Court, in the light of the legal principles initiated by the Honourable Supreme Court of India in the above cited decisions coupled with the fact that it is for the Central Government to act on the recommendation
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