The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of Parliament's decision to levy special cess on builders and contractors to create a corpus fund for providing welfare measures to the unorganised sector.

A bench of justices D K Jain and A K Ganguly, in a judgement, rejected the plea of the builders that cess was actually a tax and that there was no nexus between the levy and the intended purpose.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had dismissed their plea, challenging the cess levied under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.