Judgment

Santosh Hegde, J.-The State of Kerala has preferred these appeals against the judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala dated 11.12.1995 in W.A. No. 1180/1995 and other connected appeals whereby the appellate Bench of the Kerala High Court reversed the judgment of a learned Single Judge of the said High Court dated 28.9.1995 in a batch of writ petitions being O.P. Nos. 12240/1994-F and connected matters.

2. The original writ petitioners, who are respondents in the various appeals before us, filed writ petitions before the High Court of Kerala, challenging the constitutional validity of the provisions contained in Item 4(1)(f) of the Schedule to the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1976, as amended by Section 4 of the Kerala Finance Act, 1994 (herein­after referred to as ‘the Act’) whereby the State had enhanced the rate of quarterly tax in respect of the contract carriage vehicles operating inter-State. They also sought certain other inci­dental reliefs. The primary contention of the petitioners in these petitions was that the reduction of tax liability in favour of the vehicles covered by intra-State contract carriage permit without granting the same benef