The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

ANSARI, J. - This group of sixteen petitions are under Article 226, and challenges the constitutionality of the General Sales Tax (Amendment) Act, No. XIV of 1959, whereby sales of toddy have been charged with the tax, and three amendments been made in the General Sales Tax Act, XI of 1125. Firstly a new clause (j-3) had been added to section 2 of Act No. XI of 1125 and runs as follows :-

"(j-3) 'toddy' means the fermented or unfermented juice drawn from cocoanut, palmyra, date or any other kind of palm tree, but shall not include juice drawn into receptacles freshly coated internally with lime or otherwise trated so as to prevent any fermentation".

2. The next is in section 4 where the words "other than toddy, arrack" have been substituted, and the section now reads as follows :-

"The provisions of this Act shall not apply to the sale of electrical energy and any goods other than toddy, arrack and foreign liquor on which duty is or may be levied under the Travancore-Cochin Prohibition Act, 1950, or the Madras Prohibition Act, 1937, as in force in the Malabar District referred to in sub-section (2) of section 5 of the States Reorg