N DEVIAH GOWDER Vs. COMMERCIAL TAX OFFICER COIMBATORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Commercial Tax Officer, Coimbatore (North), served upon the petitioner a notice dated 29th September, 1959, intimating him that with the coming into force of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959, on and from 1st April, 1959, the sales of arecanuts by him could no longer be classified as agricultural produce within the definition of turnover in section 2(r) and explanation (1) and that he was liable to pay tax on his sales of arecanut from that date. THE officer, therefore, called upon him to file returns in the prescribed form showing his estimated total and taxable turnover for the year 1959-60, which should be based on the turnover of actual sales of arecanut the petitioner had made during 1958-59. THE notice wound up by a warning that in default of submission of return as required, his turnover would be estimated to the best of judgment at Rs. 6 lakhs and he would be provisionally assessed for the year 1959-60. Certain correspondence followed between the petitioner and the Commercial Tax Officer, in which the petitioner maintained that he being a producer of arecanuts which constituted an agricultural produce, sales thereof were not taxable, while, on the other hand, the department stressed the position that, since the amendment of the Act in 1959 introducing explanation (1), the sales of arecanuts constituted a turnover liable to tax. In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution the petitioner seeks a rule prohibiting the respondent from proceeding further pursuant to the notice aforesaid.

(2.) ON behalf of the petitioner two points are strenuously urged. ONe of them is that the petitioner is not a dealer. The basis of this contention is that the petitioner is himself an agriculturist who grows green arecanuts and in order to market, the arecanuts, he husks them without subjecting them to any kind of process, physical or chemical. It is said, therefore, that the idea of the petitioner in selling the arecanuts is not in commercium but the selling is a part of the petitioner's activity in agriculture. In other words, the argument is that where for purposes of marketing, an agriculturist who grows arecanuts happened to remove the husk from the arecanut in order to make the same marketable that by itself will not render him a dealer within the meaning of the Act, because his purpose is not to engage in trade or business in the sense of commerce. The second ground which is urged pertains to the proviso to the definition of "turnover". The proviso excludes from the purview of turnover agricultural produce. Explanation (1) in effect limits the scope of the proviso and states that agricultural or horticultural produce shall not include such produce as has been subjected to any physical, chemical or other process, being made fit for consumption, save mere cleaning, grading, sorting or drying.

(3.) IT is contended for the petitioner that the Commercial Tax Officer has already prejudged the two questions. I do not think so. The replies of the Commercial Tax Officer will have to be understood in the light of the communications sent by the petitioner to him. In these communications, the petitioner did not take up the position that the arecanuts sold by him underwent only husking and no other treatment. In the circumstances, as and when the petitioner files a return for the year in question, the authorities will determine the two questions afresh, without bringing to bear upon them any preconceived or prejudiced notions, but in the light of the facts found by the department on the materials produced by the petitioner. The rule nisi is discharged and the petition is dismissed. No costs.