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2011 Supreme(Raj) 2596

RAJASTHAN HIGH COURT AT JODHPUR BENCH
Vineet Kothari, J.
Shree Cement Ltd. - Appellant
Versus
State of Rajasthan and Ors. - Respondent
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 4790 of 2009.
Decided On : 11-10-2011

For the Petitioner:S. Ganesh, Sr. Advocate, assisted by Ramit Mehta.
For the Respondents:G.S. Bapna, Advocate General and Sr. Advocate with Vineet Mathur, Lokesh Mathur and Sunil Beniwal, Advocates.

Headnote:A. Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, 2003, Clause 7(vi)(vii) – Principle of estoppel cannot be applied against statute – Company will get the benefit of the scheme as it has already made investment before the date prescribed.

       B. Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, 2003, Clause 7(vi),(vii) – Notification, Dated 2.12.2005 – Promissory estoppel cannot be applied to get relief from High Court – Various efforts are made by the Cement Manufacturers Association as well as Petitioner company.

       C. Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, 2003, Clauses 7(vi), (vii) – Petitioner should get subsidy of 75% of the tax liability for a period of 7 years – Notification dated 22.5.2008 would not come in way of Petitioner company in getting such relief.

JUDGMENT

1. - How negative executive interventions, lack of political will and wisdom can cause laggard, sluggish and distorted industrial growth in a State, though rich in minerals, lime stone in present case in the State of Rajasthan and sufferer is a cement manufacturing unit, will be borne out from what follows in this case.

2. Another caveat on legislative practices, particularly subordinate legislation and executive policy decisions and the decision making process, which is amenable to judicial review by courts is that, it is high time that subordinate legislations in the form of notifications issued by Executive should give the preamble, context, brief reasons and background and particularly defining their prospective a retrospective applications, should be adopted like statement of objects and reasons and memorandum explaining provisions are given with legislative Bills, so that the judicial review becomes an effective exercise and one liner amendments like the notification dated 28.04.2006 in the present case, which have far reaching consequences are not allowed to become missile attacks on the budding industries.FACTUAL MATRIX

3. The Petitioner, a cement manufacturer, is before this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution for challenging the impugned order dated 31.3.2009 passed by the Principal Secretary, Finance, Government of Rajasthan, Jaipur under the provisions of Clause 13 invoking his revisional jurisdiction under "Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as the RIPS,2003) at the instance of Commissioner, Commercial Taxes Department with respect to two orders of State Level Screening Committee (SLSC, for short) dated 29.7.2006 and 27.6.2007 in two matters pertaining to the investment made by the Petitioner M/s Shree Cement Ltd.

4. The facts giving rise to the present writ petition in nut shell are like this.

5. The Petitioner is an ISO-9001/14001/OHSAS 18001/SA 8000 company and on the occasion of the "Resurgent Rajasthan - Partnership Summit" held at Jaipur on 30.11.2007, a MOU was signed between the State Government and the Petitioner - Company for expanding its cement production capacity by making new investment and under the said MOU, the Petitioner company made investment of over Rs. 200 crores for setting up its 3rd, 4th and 5th Units at Bangur City, village Ras, Tehsil Jaitaran, Dist. Pali and another grinding unit at Kushkhera, Tehsil Bhiwadi, Dist. Alwar. Both the units had already commenced commercial production on 21.12.2005 at Pali and 26.3.2007 at Bhiwadi respectively.

6. The State of Rajasthan issued "Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, 2003 (for short "RIPS, 2003)" vide notification dated 28.7.2003 and operative period of the said Scheme was from 1.7.2003 till 31.3.2008 and inter alia subclause 7 of the said Scheme provided for grant of subsidy to the eligible units making new investment during operative period of the said scheme in the form of interest subsidy and wage subsidy subject to a maximum limit of 50% of the tax payable and deposited under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994, the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 and the Value Added Tax Act as and when introduced in the State, which Value Added Tax Act, 2003 came into force in the State of Rajasthan with effect from 1.4.2006. In case of investment made in Modernization/Expansion/ Diversification, the amount of subsidy shall be subject to a maximum of 50% of the additional amount of Rajasthan Sales Tax and the Central Sales Tax or VAT payable or deposited whichever is higher, in any of the three immediately preceding years known as base years. Proviso to Clause 7 (i)(b) further provided that the maximum limit of 50% prescribed under Clause 7((i)(a) and Clause 7(i)(b) may be raised by the BIDI (Board of Infrastructure Development and Investment Promotion, Government of Rajasthan) to 60% in such cases where the investment exceed Rs. 100 crores but are less than or equal to Rs. 200 crores; and this maximum limit may b




































































































































































































































































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