Published on: 21 September 2023 at 09:30 IST
Court: Supreme Court of United States of America
Citation: Morey V. Doud (1957)
Honourable Supreme Court of United States has held that the Hon’ble Courts must show judicial restraint to interfere with tax legislation unless it is shown and proved that such taxing statute is manifestly unjust or glaringly unconstitutional.
The test of taxing statutes would be viewed on more stringent tests and the law makers should be given greater latitude. The Morey Principal, lays the presumption in favour of constitutionality of the statute and that the burden is on the person who attacks it, to establish that there has been clear transgression of the constitutional principles. The laws relating to economic activities should be viewed with greater latitude than laws touching civil rights such as freedom of speech, religion, etc.
“In the utilities, tax and economic regulation cases, there are good reasons for judicial self-restraint if not judicial deference to legislative judgment. The legislature after all has the affirmative responsibility. The courts have only the power to destroy, not to reconstruct. When these are added to the complexity of economic regulation, the uncertainty, the liability to error, the bewildering conflict of the experts, and the number of times the judges have been overruled by events – self-limitation can be seen to be the path to judicial wisdom and institutional prestige and stability.”
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra
