Judgment

S.N. Variava, J.—By this Writ Petition, the Petitioner seeks to challenge a letter dated 9th July, 2001, issued by the Ministry of Finance as being arbitrary and discriminatory being in violation of Articles 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, and also violative of the Finance Act, 1994 as amended by the Act 14 of 2001. The Petitioner also prays for an Order directing the Respondent to bifurcate the gross receipts of processing of photographs into the portion attributable to goods and that attributable to services. The Petitioner claims that the Respondents must tax only that portion of the receipts, which is attributable to the services rendered.

2. Briefly stated the facts are that the Petitioner is the owner of one Ajantha Colour Lab, Kottakkal, Malappuram, Kerala. The Petitioner is running the business of developing and printing of colour photographic films. The Petitioner develops the negatives supplied by the customer and gives to the customer positive prints as per the order of the customer. By the impugned letter it has been clarified that the service tax would be on the entire amount recovered by persons like the Petitioner.

3. Mr. Mohd. Yusuf raises a preliminary o