Court strikes down Centre’s pan masala cess: Why the law failed Article 14 test

4 min readBengaluruJul 25, 2026 12:54 PM IST File photo of the Karnataka High Court.The Karnataka High Court last week struck down the Health Security se National Security Cess Act enacted by the Centre for violating Article 14 of the Constitution. Partly allowing a batch of petitions filed by pan masala manufacturers, Justice M Nagaprasanna observed, “The power of the Union Government to promulgate a law to levy cess is upheld. The manner in which the Act and the Rules levy the cess is held to be unreasonable and vague, as it is based on assumption of quantity manufactured instead of actual quantity manufactured, failing the tenets of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and to that extent, the Act is held to be unconstitutional. Consequently, the Rules are also held to be unconstituti