Bhandari, J.

1. This petition under Article 236 of the Constitution raises the question whether the imposition authorised by the Punjab Tobacco Vend Pees Act, 1964, constitutes a tax or a licence fee.

2. The petitioner, who is carrying on business as a dealer in cigarettes and bidis in Sonepat, has been required to take on a distributing agents licence on payment of a licence fee of Rs. 500/-under Rule 4 of the rules framed under the Tobacco Vend Fees Act, 1954. He declines to take out the licence in question and challenges the validity of the rule on various grounds, among others, being that the State Government is imposing a tax in the garb of a licence fee, that the licence fee is discriminatory and that it amounts to unreasonable restriction on trade and business.

3. A licence fee on the sale of tobacco was imposed for the first time by the Punjab Tobacco Vend Pees Act, 1934, which was enacted with the object of regulating the sale of manufactured tobacco in municipal and certain other areas. Section 3 imposed a statutory obligation on all vendors of tobacco to take out a dealers licence and Section 4 declared that every licence shall be granted on payment of such fees