The increased licensing fee imposed for cattle export is deemed a tax rather than a regulatory fee, making it ultra vires the powers granted under the Act.

1. The petitioner No. 2 is an association of persons who are running salvage farms. The petitioner No. 1 is the President of that association. The petitioner No. 2 association has been registered under the Bombay Non - Trading Corporations Act, 1959. Its members have been running salvage farms at village Kakoshi and other places in Mehsana District. At their salvage farms, they receive drought buffaloes, treat them for a period of time and make them milch buffaloes. When drought buffaloes become milch buffaloes, after receiving treatment at the salvage farms, they are returned to their owners. Drought buffaloes are received at these salvage farms even from outside the State of Gujarat - more particularly from Bombay. The owners of the salvage farms charge the owners of such buffaloes only for their labour and service. They neither purchase nor sell the buffaloes.

2. In 1958, the Bombay Essential Commodities and Cattle (Control) Act. 1958 was enacted by the Bombay Legislature, inter alia, to provide for maintenance and movement of cattle. It applies amongst others to buffaloes. Under the said Act, the Government of Gujarat has made the Gujarat Cattle (Export Control) Order, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Control Order). Under the said Control Order anyone who wants to export (out of the territory of Gujarat State) cattle has to obtain a permit from the authority or officer specified in the Control Order and has to pay a fee for obtaining such a permit. The said order, in the first instance, prescribed a licensing fee of rupees five per head of cattle but later on increased it to rupees twenty per head of cattle. The petitioners, being aggrieved by the levy of this licensing fee, have filed this petition in which they have raised contentions to challenge the validity of the Control Order, Mr. K.S. Nanavati has raised before us the following four contentions : -
(1) Clauses 3 and 4 of the Gujarat Cattle (Export Control) Order, 1961, are ultra vires Art.301 of the Constitution and are not saved by Art.304 - more particularly so because Art.304 does not protect delegated legislation (prescribing a licensing fee at the rate of rupees twenty per cattle head for issuance of an export permit) and they do not satisfy the test of reasonableness. The license - fee levied for issuance of an export permit is in the nature of a tax and it, therefore, violates Art.301 of the Constitution.
(2) Clauses 3 and 4 violate Art.19(1)(g) and are not saved by Art.19(6).
(3) Clauses 3 and 4 violate Art.14 inasmuch as no distinction has been made between the owners of salvage farms on the one hand and the dealers in cattle on the other hand.
(4) Sub-clause (3) of clause 4 is ultra vires S.4(2)(j) of the Bombay Essential Commodities and Cattle (Control) Act, 1958 , under which it has been made.

3. In order to appreciate contentions which Mr. K.S. Nanavati has raised before us, it is necessary to consider the scheme of the Bombay Essential Commodities and Cattle (Control) Act, 1958 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) in so far as it relates to cattle. It has been enacted for the purpose of controlling and regulating the production, movement, supply and distribution of, and trade and commerce in certain commodities and the maintenance and movement of cattle. We are examining the scheme of the Act only in so far as it relates to control and regul