COMMON ORDER

These writ petitions seek Mandamus, directing the respondents to register the petitioners’ vehicles (AMW TIPPER, Hydraulic Mobile Crane, JCB Backhoe Loader) purchased under eighteen Invoices, dated 18.03.2011 (1), 29.03.2011 (6), 30.03.2011 (5), 31.03.2011 (4), 11.04.2011 (1), 25.03.2011 (1) without collecting entry tax under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Tax on Entry of Motor Vehicles into Local Areas Act, 1990 (in short ‘Act’).

2. The petitioner has raised several challenges to the levy of entry tax, per se and the writ petitions are styled more as a writ of declaration though, in conclusion, only mandamus is sought.

3. The levy of entry tax has been the subject of challenge on various grounds and the Supreme Court, in a judgment rendered by a Nine Judges Bench in the case of Jindal Stainless Limited and another vs. State of Haryana and others [(2017) 12 STC 1] has settled most of the issues raised barring two relating to (i) whether the levies satisfy the test of whether the tax burden on imported goods and goods produced legally is not discriminatory but equal and (ii) whether the entire state could be notified as a local area.

4. Be that as it may, there can be no