Judgment

DAS CJI. : These eight appeals arise out of eight writ petitions filed by the appellants in the High Court of Mysore challenging the validity of the Mysore Cinematograph Shows Tax Act of 1951 (Mysore Act XVI of 1951) and praying for appropriate writs or orders restraining the respondents or their officers from collecting the taxes which had been levied under the provisions of the said Act from the appellants, as the said provisions contravened the provisions of Art. 276 (2) and Art. 14 of the Constitution of India. The appellant in Appeal No. 281 of 1956 is the lessee of a cinema House where he exhibits cinema films. All the appellants in the other appeals are the owners of their respective cinema Houses where they exhibit cinema films. As the Division Bench of the Mysore High Court hearing the petitions was unable to come to an agreed decision, the matter was referred to a Full Bench. By a unanimous judgment delivered on 31-1-1956 the Full Bench dismissed the writ petitions. Aggrieved by the said judgment the appellants applied for and, on 10-2-1956 obtained certificates of fitness for appeal to this Court. Hence the present appeals which have been consolidated and heard t