Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J. :- The core of the contention urged by the appellants in these various appeals filed by certificate under Article 133(1)(a) and (c) of the Constitution is that the excise duty on matches sought to be levied on these medium sized manufacturers of Shivakashi wears the mask of equality but in its true face bears the marks of unequal justice violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

2. Shri Chitale, learned counsel for the appellants, has focused his arguments on one grievance only - and, we think, with good reason - that the discriminatory fiscal treatment of his clients is unconstitutional, the vice being treatment of dissimilar categories similarly. To compress his whole argument in a single sentence, it is that the appellants, small manufacturers of matches, have been subjected by the impugned notification to excise duty at the same onerous rate as has been applied to larger producers, wilfully indifferent to a historically well-recognised classification between the smaller and the larger group of match manufacturers, and the injury sustained flows from this failure to classify and deal differentially with sets of producers who are unequal in the