AIR 1958 CALCUTTA 669

Calcutta High Court

Hon'ble Judge(s): P. B. Mukharji , J

Constitution of India , Art.14— Reasonable classification - Graduated rates of income-tax - Whether arbitrary - Constitutionality of Finance Acts 1951 and 1954. Finance Act (14 of 1953) , S.2— Income-Tax Act (11 of 1922) , S.3— Article 14 of the Indian Constitution does not insist that every piece of legislation must have universal application and it does not take away from the State the power to classify persons for the purposes of legislation, but the classification must be rational, and in order to satisfy this test (i) the classification must be founded on an intelligible differentia which distinguish those that are grouped together from others, and (ii) that differentia must have a rational relation to the object sought to be achieved by the Act. The differentia which is the basis of the classification and the object of the Act are distinct things and what is necessary is that there must be a nexus between them.(Para 13) It is not necessary that the basis of the scheme for the income-tax should also be the same as the basis of the scheme of the super-tax in order to be reasonable. The constitutional doctrine of equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws is not violated by a reasonable classification and there is no limit as to the classification so long as it has and observes a rational basi....