Law: Finance Act, 1991

Section: 12

Law: Constitution of Pakistan, 1973

Section: 199

JUDGMENT The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Nasim Sikandar, J. - Through this Single judgment, I intend to dispose of Writ Petition Nos. 5246/97, 99/93, 3541/94, 2521/93, 2470/93, 2520/93, 2471/93, 2472/93, 8613/96, 15076/97, 2522/93, 3491/93, 6518/93, 14647/97, 14878/97, 5247/97 and 11857/98. 2. These constitutional petitions seek to challenge the vires of section 12 of the Finance Act, 1991. Through that provision a tax known as Corporate Assets Tax was levied on the assets held by a company on the specific date, In some of the petitions besides challenging the vires of the said provisions, some assessment orders framed by the Wealth Tax Officer creating certain demands have also been challenged. 3. On being confronted that the issues being raised through these constitutional petitions have already been considered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan in re: M/s I.C.C. Textile Ltd and others v: Federation of Pakistan and others (2001) 84 Tax 117 (S.C. Pak.)=(2001 SCMR 1208), learned counsel representing different petitioners attempt to distinguish their cases in order to establish that the ratio settled in that judgment is not attracted in their cases. As a general plea it is submitted that a number of issues which ought to have been raised before the Hon'ble apex court were not raised by the learned counsel appearing in the Civil Appeals, which were decided by the Hon'ble court through that judgment. 4. On the basis of the ratio settled in a Judgment from Indian jurisdiction re: Union of India v. Harbhajan Singh Dhillon (1972) 83 ITR 582, it is claimed that the very levy is ultra vires of Federal Legislature as well as the relevant entries of the Fourth Schedule Part-I of the Federal Legislative List particularly Entry No. 50. Some of the learned counsel have gone to the extent of describing the aforesaid judgment to be a judgment per incuriam and have attempted to cite the case law to bring home that a new appraisal of the issues involved can very well be made by this court. Also a reference is made to the case of re: Young Vs. Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. (1944) 2 All ELR 293 which is stated to be the first authority settling the principles in…

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