' Through the present writ petition the liability of the petitioner to pay the excise duty levied by the respondents on hotel-keepers who charge room rent of Rs, 25 or more per day is being challenged.
It is submitted on behalf of the petitioner that they charge a room rent of Rs, 20 only and any additional charges which they make for providing additional beds to the rooms cannot be counted towards room rent.
2. A large number of bills which the respondents took into possession shows that the petitioner had been charging room rent at the rate of Rs, 20 but have charged varying amounts of Rs, 8 or more per room for providing extra beds or heaters etc.. The total amount easily exceed Rs, 25 and on the face of it the petitioner is liable to pay the excise duty demanded by the respondents. As to the contention raised by the learned counsel that the charges for extra beds cannot be counted towards room rent, it is enough to observe that the rent visualised by S. R.
0. 224(1)/71 is the rent charged by the hotel-keepers of a room without regard to the capacity of the room or whether it contains one bed or more beds. The rules do no visualise the rent per head or per bed and if the petitioner charges Rs, 8 or more per room for providing extra beds this would be counted as a part of the room rent. Similar will be the case of charges for providing heaters etc.
3. In view of the above discussion it is quite clear that the petitioner is liable to pay the excise duty.
The writ petition is dismissed with costs.