JUDGMENT

Ranjit More, CJ. - Heard Mr. S.Jindal, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. A.Kumar, learned AG along with Mr. K.Khan, learned Sr. GA for the respondents.

2. By this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner is challenging the constitutional validity of Section 3(1)(c) of the Meghalaya Electricity Duty (Assam Act XXX of 1964 as adapted by Meghalaya) as amended vide amendment Act dated 15th October, 2019 (hereinafter for the sake of brevity referred to as “the Act”).

3. Before the 2019 amendment, Section 3(1)(c) of the Assam Electricity Duty Act, 1964 (Assam Act XXX of 1964) reads as follows:

“3. (1) There shall be levied and paid to the State Government a duty, to be called the “electricity duty”, at the rate of five paise per unit of energy.

(c) generated by a person or a company or a firm or any organisation for own use or consumption”.

4. The provision of Sub-section (c) of Section 3(1) was challenged before the Gauhati High Court by filing WP(C) No. 710/2010. Admittedly, the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court held and declared that the State is not legally competent to levy duty from the cellular phone companies on self-produce