- JUDGEMENT SUMMARY – B.S Raut and Others v. State of Maharashtra
- DATE OF JUDGEMENT – 4th December 1990
- JUDGES – Justice V.A. Mohta and Justice M.B. Ghodeshwar
FACTS
Six petitions were filed by various parties and have been grouped together. The common question that arose was whether civilian defence personnel, the petitioners are members of the Armed Forces of the Union under Section 27-A of the Maharashtra State Tax on Professions, trades, callings and Employments Act of 1975 and are therefore exempted from the liability of paying any chargeable professional tax. The petitioners include librarians, stenographer, camp followers and other non-combatant civilian defence personnel.
Overview of judgement
The court looked into various cases previously decided on the basis of whether certain professionals of the civilian defense can be included in certain acts that govern the armed forces, including the case of OusKutilingalAchudan Nair v. Union of India, which can be found at https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/judiciary/whether-civilian-employees-of-the-defense-have-the-right-to-form-trade-unions-as-under-article-19-1-of-the-constitution-4535.asp. The court upon reviewing and looking into such judgements, went on to understand that there is no definition of the term “camp follower” in any law which forms an integral part of the petitioner’s case. The list is only illustrative, not exhaustive hence creates ambiguity. The Court referred to the Supreme Court and elaborated that the expression “Armed Forces” has been used to include, non-combatants who though not subject to military law but are a part of the Armed Forces though Section 2 of the Act does not provide an exhaustive list of the same.
Further, the Court added that Section 27 of the Professional Tax Act cannot be limited to regular army personnel and should be extended to those civilian defense personnel as well, especially during wartime. The Court came to this decision on the basis that taxing statutes must be liberal and favor the payer.
