The legal principle established is that the grant of exemption/adjustment/credit equivalent to the fiscal burden on goods within the State and those from outside would not be discriminatory.

ORDER :

Leave granted.

2. In these appeals filed by the assessees, there is a challenge to the judgment dated 18th February, 2008 whereby a batch of writ petitions were dismissed. A number of issues were raised and the High Court after discussing those issues summed up its findings in paragraph 28 of the impugned judgment which are as follows:

"28. To sum up, we are of the opinion that the State has the following three alternatives to impose a levy or tax which would not be violative of Article 301 meaning thereby it will not be treated as a hindrance in trade, commerce and intercourse. They are:-

(i) if the levy imposed is compensatory in nature and facially or patently indicates the quantifiable data on the basis of which the compensatory levy or tax is sought to be levied and the Act facially indicates the benefits which is quantifiable or measurable and the proportionality of the quantifiable benefits and should be in the form of reimbursement/recompense for the quantifiable and measurable benefits to be provided to its payers or trades people.

(ii) if the tax is levied under clause (a) of Article 304 but subject to conditions given therein that such levy or tax on goods would not result in discrimination between the goods imported from other States and similar goods manufactured or produced within the State entering into a local area. However, the scope of clause (a) of Article 304 is limited to the extent that the State cannot impose tax on the goods imported from other States and are not manufactured or produced within that State,

(iii) if the tax is imposed following the provisions of clause (b) of Article 304 meaning thereby that the previous sanction of the President has been obtained in imposing the tax."

3. The plea of the State on the challenge predicated on Article 304(a) of the Constitution of India was noted and dealt with in paragraph 30 of the judgment and we reproduce the same as well:

"30. The State has taken the plea that the Orissa Entry Tax Act has been enacted under clause (a) of Article 304 of the Constitution. Therefore, as discussed above no tax can be imposed on those goods imported from outside the State which are not manufactured or produced in the State of Orissa. However, we do not find any discrimination in the provisions of the Act between the goods imported from outside the State and those manufactured or produced in the State of Orissa and are bought into the local area within a State. In this regard, the definition of entry of goods given in clause (d) of section 2 is relevant which shows that there is no discrimination between the goods produced or manufactured within the State of Orissa or imported from outside and are brought within the local area. The rate of tax imposed under the Act or the Rules are also applicable uniformly on the goods imported from outside or goods manufactured within the State which are brought into a local area. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Orissa Entry Tax Act is not made under clause (a) of Article 304 of the Constitution. However, the State has no jurisdiction to impose tax on such goods imported from outside and are not manufactured within the State of Orissa. Therefore, the opposite parties may make scrutiny of the same and not realize entry tax on such goods but for this the Act cannot be declared ultra vires."

4. From the aforesaid, it becomes clear that some of the issues were decided against the State, though the overall conclusion was the dismissal of the writ petitions. The State against those findings also preferred appeals. Those appeals have been allowed by us in today's date by a separate order as the said issues stand concluded in favour of the State by a Nine Judge Bench in the case of Jindal Stainless Steel v. State of Haryana reported in 2016 (11) SCALE 1.

5. In these appeals preferred by the assessees, the assessees have challenged the findings contained in sub-para (ii) of Paragraph 28 wherein the High Court has held that Entry Tax is levied u