Judgment :-

Aftab Alam, J.

1. Leave granted in all the special leave petitions.

2. All these appeals relate to the demand of entertainment tax raised by the Government of Madhya Pradesh under the Madhya Pradesh Entertainment Duty and Advertisements Tax Act, 1936 (hereinafter referred to as “the 1936 Act”) on DTH (direct to home) broadcast provided by the appellants to their respective customers on payment of subscriptions. The appellants in all the appeals challenged the demand by the State Government by filing writ petitions before the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The High Court dismissed the writ petitions, upholding the demand by the State Government by the judgment and order dated August 20, 2010. That judgment was rendered in a batch of three writ petitions, taking Writ Petition No. 10148 of 2009, filed on behalf of Tata Sky Limited (appellant in the appeal arising from SLP (C) No.2752 of 2011) as the lead case. The rest of the writ petitions were dismissed following the judgment dated August 20, 2010.

3. For the sake of convenience, we too have taken the facts from civil appeal arising out of special leave petition (civil) No.27595 of 2010. 4. The appellant operates under a licenc