( 1 ) THIS application and 62 other applications have been heard together. A common point of law is involved in all these applications. The petitioners in all these cases are either a company or a firm carrying on the business or running a cinema house in the city of Calcutta, or a proprietor thereof. I shall now proceed to delineate the facts of this case. The facts in all these cases arc more or less similar. The petitioner in this case is a registered partnership firm carrying on business in Calcutta as the owner and licensee of a cinema-house known as the Liberty Cinema, situate at 255/b, Chittaranjan Avenue. It is a 'c' class cinema according to the classification made by the Corporation of Calcutta, having a seating capacity of 551. The petitioner has been paying the following taxes and fees to the Corporation of Calcutta in order to run the said cinema-house: (a) A consolidated rate of Rs. 971. 08 np. per year. (b) A fee of Rs. 250,/- for a trade licence. (c) A licence-fee of Rs. 800/- per year under Section 443 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951. (d) A water-tax amounting to Rs. 33/- per year. (e) Licence fee for sky signs, (unspecified ).

( 2 ) AT a meet