Greenply Industries Limited & Anr vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 6335 Cal

14.12.2021
Court No.13
  Sl.27
  sp                           W.P.A. No. 18355 of 2021
                           Greenply Industries Limited & Anr.
                                         Versus
                            The State of West Bengal & Ors.

                             (Through Video Conference)


                      Mr. Saptangsu Basu, Sr. Adv.,
                      Mr. Kallol Basu,
                      Mr. Snehashis Sen,
                      Mr. Abhishek Banerjee,
                      Ms. Mrinalini Majumdar
                                                 ...for the petitioners.

                      Mr. Anirban Ray, ld. G.P.,
                      Mr. Amal Sen,
                      Mr. Suman Sengupta
                                                         ...for the State

                      Ms. Sutapa Sanyal,
                      Mr. Debrup Bhattacharya,
                      Mr. Pradeep Kr. Tulsyan
                                            ...for the respondent no.6

Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken

on record.

The petitioners are aggrieved that on compulsion

and mistake in law they were paying agricultural tax

in terms of a notification July 24, 2017 issued by the

Government of West Bengal under the West Bengal

Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulations) Act,

1972.

By a judgment and order dated February 17,

2017, passed in WP 7975 (W) of 2007 (Century

Plyboards (India) Ltd. & Anr. vs. The Government of

West Bengal), the levy that was imposed and tax

demanded from the said plywood manufacturer,

terming its product as agricultural produce, was

struck down and set aside by this Court.

The said notification was reintroduced on July

24, 2017 which the petitioners would argue has the

effect of nullifying the aforesaid judgment in the

Century Plyboards (India) Ltd. & Anr (supra).

Ms. Sutapa Sanyal, learned counsel for the

respondent no.6 opposes the prayer of the petitioners

and submits that the said Century Plyboards case,

cannot be applied to the instant proceedings since the

definition of agricultural produce under Section 2(a) of

the Act of 1972 has undergone amendment in the year

2014.

This Court is of the view that in the back drop of

the judgment rendered by a Co-ordinate bench of this

Court in the Century Plyboards case (supra), the

aforesaid amendment, would not have any application.

The issue was considered by several benches of

this Court, inter alia, in WP 3194 (W) of 2018, WP

4560 (W) of 2018 and WP 4563 (W) of 2018 and the

notification has since been stayed.

In that view of the matter, the notification dated

July 24, 2017 shall remain stayed. The petitioners

shall not be obliged to pay any agricultural marketing

tax under the aforesaid circular.

Let affidavit-in-opposition be filed by the

respondent no.6 within a period of six weeks from the

date of communication of a copy of this order. Reply, if

any, be filed within a period of two weeks thereafter.

Liberty to mention for hearing after completion

of pleadings.

All parties shall act on the server copy of this

order duly downloaded from the official website of this

Court.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)