Y. R. MEENA, J. - By this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed the notification dated February 5, 1988 may be quashed and the demand raised by the respondents vide demand notice dated October 1, 1991 may also be quashed. Petitioner has further prayed that the respondents may also be directed to grant eligibility certificate to the petitioner with effect from June 28, 1988 instead of October 1, 1991.

The petitioner is a limited company and is registered as medium scale industry. Petitioner has a mini cement plant for manufacturing Portland cement and having annual capacity on maximum utilisation of the plant to the tune of 33,000 tonnes per annum. The petitioner-unit started commercial production with effect from June 28, 1988.

The exercise of the powers under sub-section (2) of section 4 of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act, 1954") respondent No. 1 issued a scheme vide notification dated May 23, 1987 known as Sales Tax Incentive Scheme for Industries, 1987 (hereinafter referred to as "the Incentive Scheme"). Under the scheme new units are exempted from payment of tax on the sale of goods manufactured by such units within the State of Rajasthan provided they fulfil the conditions laid down in the scheme. Petitioner-company has applied for exemption of payment of sale tax under the scheme to the District Industries Officer but the District Industries Officer has returned the application to the petitioner on the ground that the petitioner has not started commercial production.

The company started commercial production with effect from June 28, 1988, hence it has again submitted application along with the required documents on June 28, 1988. Copy of that application is marked as annexure 2. Some objections were again raised by the concerned officer pointing out some defects vide letter dated June 30, 1988. The required formalities were completed and the defects were removed and that has been communicated to the concerned authority vide letter dated July 16, 1988. The copy of the letter dated July 6, 1988 is marked as annexure 3. Again a reminder was issued on October 6, 1988 but nothing has been done by the concerned authority. It was also brought to the notice of the concerned authority that the petitioner has not been charging sales tax as he is eligible for exemption under the scheme. Thereafter, petitioner came to known that exemption under the scheme is available from the date of issue of certificate issued by the competent authority under the scheme. By the amendment in the scheme, on August 6, 1988, the exemption to the units like the petitioner was withdrawn. On September 10, 1990, the scheme was again amended and as per that amendment, the petitioner again became eligible for exemption. On the basis of amendment made with effect from September 10, 1990, a certificate was issued from exemption to the petitioner with effect from October 1, 1990 to September 30, 1992.

The only grievance of the petitioner is that while he applied for exemption on June 28, 1988 and that date he was eligible for exemption under the scheme, he should be allowed exemption from the date of production, i.e., June 28, 1988. Once he applied on June 28, 1988 and if authorities just sit over the application, there is no fault of the petitioner, therefore, on that ground sub-clause (d) of clause 7 of the scheme being ultra vires and unreasonable should be declared ultra vires and the exemption should be allowed from the date of the application as per the object and provisions of the scheme.

Learned counsel for the petitioner has taken us to the various provisions of the scheme and submitted that the object of the scheme is to give assistance or encourage the new units in the beginning so that they can establish themselves in the market. He further submitted that under the scheme, when there was no time-limit for the commencement of production, the exemption cannot be withdrawn to the units which came in