STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A Division Bench (DB) of the State High Court comprising Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Kumar on Monday declined to treat petition filed by one Rajesh Gupta, President, Traders Federation Ware House/ Nehru Market for declaring the continuation of levy and collection of toll tax by the respondents in the State of Jammu and Kashmir under the Levy of Tolls Act, Samvat 1995 as illegal, ultra-vires the Constitution and contrary to the scheme and architecture of Goods and Services Taxes (GST) Regime, as Public Interest Litigation observing that the petitioner being the President of the Traders Federation Ware House/Nehru Market, Jammu is vitally interested in the matter.
Upon this, Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi appearing for the petitioner submitted that he shall add an individual also, who is affected and is vitally interested in the matter and an appropriate application shall be moved within a day.
Division Bench directed registry to list this petition on December 20, 2017 and the petition be numbered as OWP.
In the petition, the petitioner has sought direction to respondents to abolish purely in the public interest the Levy of Tolls Act, 1995 (1938 A.D.) promulgated vide Act No. VIII of 1995 in view of promulgation of and implementation of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act, 2017, the Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act, 2017 and the Jammu and Kashmir Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, as continuation of the Levy of Tolls Act, 1995 in the State of Jammu and Kashmir is defeating the basic spirit and architecture of GST Regime which is aimed at building the entire country as a One Nation One Tax One Market.
