RAMAKRISHNA LUNCH HOME Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) W.P. No. 9281 of 1991 : The prayer in this writ petition is for a mandamus to forbear the second respondent from collecting sales tax, surcharge, additional sales tax and other amounts from the petitioner for the year 1989-90. 2. The necessary facts are as follows : The petitioner is rendering catering service transactions in a restaurant. By G.O. P. No. 570 dated June 10, 1987, catering service transactions effected in hotels and restaurants were exempted from payment of sales tax under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). The said notification reads as follows :

(2.) THERE was an amendment to G.O. P. No. 198 dated March 25, 1989, by a notification made in G.O. P. No. 332 dated May 30, 1990, where the exemption limit was raised from rupees ten lakhs to Rs. 15 lakhs per annum. By G.O. P. No. 532 dated September 5, 1990, it was ordered as follows :

(3.) THE first contention of the learned counsel is that when G.O. P. No. 532 dated September 5, 1990 was issued and when by that Notification G.O. P. No. 198 dated March 25, 1989 was ordered to be cancelled, then, the gamut of the entire Notification in G.O. P. No. 198 dated March 25, 1989 came to be obliterated on and from September 5, 1990. In other words, he would contend that by issue of G.O. P. No. 532 dated September 5, 1990, G.O. P. No. 198 came to be abrogated or taken away or obliterated from the statute book and therefore, after September 5, 1990, one should read as if G.O. P. No. 198 dated March 25, 1989 never existed. He would contend that when once G.O. P. No. 198 itself is cancelled and if it was only by G.O. P. No. 198, the earlier notification made in G.O. P. No. 570 dated June 10, 1987 had been superseded, then, once G.O. P. No. 198 itself was cancelled, then G.O. P. No. 570 dated June 10, 1987 would revive and hold the field. He would also contend that the issue of separate notifications on the same day in G.O. P. No. 532 dated September 5, 1990 imposing a liability to tax, where the turnover exceeds Rs. 18. 25 lakhs, cannot stand side by side with G.O. P. No. 570 dated June 10, 1987 and therefore, G.O. P. No. 532 dated September 5, 1990, imposing a liability to tax for transactions exceeding Rs. 18. 25 lakhs should be declared as invalid.