Judgement

KRISHNA IYER, J.:- The die-hard tax - fee dilemma survives, as these appeals, by special leave, attest, long after this court has dispelled the fiscallegal confusion on the point in a series of rulings. The cases before us were provoked by a sudden escalation of licence fee imposed on all hoteliers by the common appellant the Madurai Municipal Council (now it is a Corporation, but that makes no difference) (Council for short). The scale of fees which perhaps, merely defrayed the cost of issuing the licence, was moderate to begin with and paid periodically by the respondents who run hotels within the municipal limits: but their present grievance is that the resolution of December 28, 1965, whereby a sharp spurt in the rates of fee was brought about, has been tainted with unconstitutionality .

2. The authority to justify the levy qua fee, must render some special services to the category from whom the amount is exacted and the total sum so collected must have a reasonable correlation to the cost of such services. Where these dual basic features are absent, you cannot legally claim from the licensee under the label fee .

3. This court has, as late as the Salvation Army c