The court held that Rule 6 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Rules, 1978 is within the rule-making powers of the Cess Act and has full force and effect. The court also emphasized the interconnection between the Cess Act and the Pollution Act, and the need to interpret the Cess Act in the background of the provisions of the Pollution Act.

SUKUMARAN, J. :- The forty eight writ appeals now raise one vital point about vires, scope and amplitude of Rule 6 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Rules, 1978. The rule has been framed under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977 (Central Act 36/77) (hereinafter referred to for brevity's sake as the 'Cess Act'). The inter connection between the Cess Act and the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, (hereinafter referred to as the 'Pollution Act') (Central Act 6/74) would be an important facet of the question under consideration.

2. The writ petitions sought diverse reliefs; and raised before the learned single Judge three points :

(i) The Pulp Division is not a "Specified industry" within the meaning of S. 2(c) of the Act, and no cess can consequently be levied in respect of that Division under S. 3;

(ii) The proceedings of the appellate committee are vitiated by legal bias; and

(iii) Rule (6) of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Rules, 1978 relied on by the appellate committee for denying the benefit of rebate to the petitioners is ultra vires.

The learned Judge held that "chemical industry", in the context in which it is used in Schedule I of the Act can therefore include an industry manufacturing rayon-grade pulp". The second contention also failed; said that learned Judge :

"Where a statute provides for an appeal and prescribes the appellate forum, an aggrieved person cannot resort to that forum and then complain that it is not a proper forum."

On the interpretation of Rule 6, the learned Judge held :

".........the words "successfully commissioned" and "functions successfully" in Rule 6 have to be read down so as to apply only to those cases where what is installed is no plant, or where there is no installation worth the name. So read, the rule can be allowed to stand, though parts of Form I would still be otiose."

3. The Kerala State Board for Prevention and Control of Water Pollution challenges the view so taken by the

learned single Judge on the interpretation of Rule 6.

4. The bare facts leading to the writ petitions and writ appeals may be referred to before the legal question is posed and answered.

5. The petitioner-Company commissioned in 1963 a Pulp Factory in Kozhikode District. It was located on the banks of the Chaliyar river, at Mavur. Mavur was formerly a beauty spot which had elicited admiration of the administrators and appreciation of literary men. Not surprisingly. Beyond and around it were the swelling hills of greenery. The pellucid waters of Chaliyar river flowed along the pebbly bed before they fell into the Beypore Bay.

6. The installation of the factory was not without its deleterious effects on the purity and clarity of the river water. The factory had a rated capacity of 200 M.Ts. of pulp per day. The manufacturing process takes in various activities; it involves the conversion of bamboo, eucalyptus and other suitable species of wood into pulp. The raw materials are washed by a continuous stream of water sprayed on to the conveyors before they are fed into chippers. After the chips are reduced to uniform sizes, they are conveyed to the digesters and subjected to acid prehydrolysis, using dilute surphuric acid solution. The spent liquor is then drained out, and the chips washed to remove the acid. The chips are thereafter cooked using a solution containing cooking chemicals at high temperature of above 160°(c The cooked pulp is later sent to 'Knotter Screen' to remove the uncooked particles. The pulp is washed in a series of washers in a countercurrent manner. Other processes are also resorted to. The washed pulp is bleached in a multistaged Bleaching Plant. It is quite understandable that these activities of the company result in large scale pollution of water.

7. The Water Pollution Board constituted under the Pollution Act is empowered, under the Cess Act to levy a cess, for partly meeting the finances required for its