Amendments to taxation statutes cannot change their fundamental basis without corresponding amendments to the charging provisions, which must be clear and unambiguous to avoid excessive delegation of legislative power.

JUDGMENT :

Rajesh Shankar, J.

1. In the present batch of writ petitions, the petitioners have challenged the vires and validity of Sections 2 and 3 of the Jharkhand Electricity Duty (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Jharkhand Act No.05 of 2021) (hereinafter to be referred as 1^st Amendment Act, 2021) notified in the Extraordinary Edition of Jharkhand Gazette published by the Government of Jharkhand on 07.07.2021. The petitioners have also challenged the vires of the Jharkhand Electricity Duty (Amendment) Rules, 2021 (hereinafter referred as the Rules, 2021) notified in the Extraordinary Edition of Jharkhand Gazette published by the Government of Jharkhand on 01.04.2022. Some of the writ petitioners, who are the captive consumers, have challenged the vires and validity of the Jharkhand Electricity Duty (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Jharkhand Act, 02 of 2022) (hereinafter to be referred as the 2^nd Amendment Act, 2021) notified in the Extraordinary Edition of Jharkhand Gazette published by the Government of Jharkhand on 17.02.2022.

2. The petitioners have also prayed for refund of the amount of electricity duty along with interest, if any, realized from them pursuant to the 1^st Amendment Act, 2021.

Argument on behalf of the petitioners:

3. Mr. M.S Mittal, learned senior counsel represents both sets of writ petitioners i.e., the electricity consumers as well as captive power plants (CPP).

4. It is submitted that in view of Section 3 of the Bihar Electricity Duty Act, 1948 (in short “the Act, 1948”) the electricity duty was being realised from the concerned petitioners on the basis of units of energy sold or consumed at the rate or rates specified in the Schedule of the said Act, however, vide 1^st Amendment Act, 2021, the said Act has been amended introducing a new method for computation of electricity duty at the rate of certain percentage of the 'net charges' calculated for the energy sold or consumed as a result of which the electricity duty payable by the petitioners has significantly increased.

5. Mr. Mittal by producing an electricity bill for the HT consumer relating to the month of July, 2021 issued to one of the petitioners i.e. M/s Pali Hill Breweries Pvt. Ltd., submits that prior to the 1^st Amendment Act, 2021, the said petitioner would have been liable to pay electricity duty at the rate of Rs.0.05 per unit (5 paise) for the electricity consumption of 1,10,136 units amounting to Rs.5,506.80/-. However, as a result of introduction of the said Amendment, the liability to pay the electricity duty by the said petitioner at the rate of 8% of 'net energy charges' (since its contract demand is less than 10 MVA) has radically enhanced to Rs.55,556.16/- (8% of the net energy charges calculated for the said month i.e. Rs.6,94,452). Therefore, its liability to pay the electricity duty has increased by almost 1000%.

6. The respondents cannot distort the language of Section 3(1) of the Act, 1948 to include within its ambit, charging of electricity duty on ‘net charges’ calculated for energy consumed or sold when a plain reading of the charging section does not authorize them to levy electricity duty on any basis, other than the units of energy consumed/sold.

7. It is well settled that the provisions contained in the Schedule to the parent Act must be in consonance wi