RNANJIAH Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The two questions referred to this Court by the Commissioner of Sales Tax under Section 16, Mysore Sales Tax Act are:

(2.) Whether Section 9 of the Mysore Bales Tax Act is a charging Section......". 2. The facts bearing on the first question as stated in the reference are: The ryots and sellers of goods bring them to Mysore City. The Octroi Mutsaddi or Octroi Qokad levies market cess and octroi if any. The assessee as holder of a license issued by the Regulated Market to act as commission agent waits at the Ookad takes the carte in which the goods are brought by the ryots to the Regulated market or deputes his authorised agents to do so. Alternatively the Octroi Mutsaddi notes the name of the commission agent as mentioned by the seller and sends the carts to the Regulated market. At the market the goods are sold in the presence of the Market Authorities by the Commission Agent. If the sellers agree to part with the goods for the highest bidder the goods will be delivered to him. Otherwise these will be resold on a subsequent day and till then remain with the market authorities, a fee being charged for storage. The seller will be present at the sale whenever it be, signs the papers relating to it and receives the amount. There is no case in which the commission agent is authorised to either accept the bid or receive the amount on behalf of the seller. The commission agent gets a commission of three pies per rupee for the services rendered by him.

(3.) The mam condition of liability for payment of the tax is mentioned in Section 3 to be that the person concerned should be a dealer in goods. "Dealer" is defined in Section 2 as any person who carries on the business of buying or selling goods; 'Sale' is defined as transfer of the property in goods by one person to another in the course of trade or business for cash or... ...Obviously the assessee is noi a buyer of goods. He can be charged, if at all, he can be deemed to carry the business of selling the goods and this depends on his effecting the transfer of the property in the goods by one person to another. The part played by him in the disposal of the goods is not that of a vendor and no one can either mistake him to be such as it is known that the price has to be accepted by another and the goods can be obtained with his consent. His role is only to introduce the seller to the places where the goods may be sold and to help him to get into contact with the buyer. He can neither determine the terms of the bargain nor hand over the goods. Such a person can hardly be considered a dealer as defined in the Act.