MITTAL STEEL LIMITED Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above writ petition has been filed for the issue of a writ of a declaration, declaring that the benefit of exemption shall be available irrespective of the fact that the end-products were manufactured by steel re-rolling mills in Tamil Nadu or where the steel re-rolling mills were situate outside Tamil nadu, provided that the steel re-rolling mills purchased the iron and steel raw materials falling within the scope of item 4 of the Second Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act and furnished a declaration regarding purchase.

(2.) The petitioner, in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition, claims that it is a registered dealer under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 and Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, in Tamil Nadu and that they have registered office at White Field Road, Mahadevapura, Bangalore-48 and branch office in Tamil Nadu at No. 109, Armenian Street, Madras-1 and branches at Coimbatore and Salem. It is claimed that the petitioners purchased iron and steel raw materials through their office at Madras, Coimbatore and Salem after payment of sales tax or tax-suffered raw materials, and transferred it to their unit at Bangalore and delivered to M/s. Andhra Steel Corporation Ltd., having mini-steel plant and Bangalore for conversion into M.S. billets and ingots and return to the petitioner's unit at Bangalore and converted by the petitioners into tor steel, M.S. rounds and M.S. coil, etc., and transferred them back to the office at Madras and sold the same within the State. On such claims and assumptions, the petitioners claimed that they are entitled to exemption under various Government orders, referred to in the affidavit. It is stated by the petitioner that the notifications referred to therein are related for the period from January 19, 1976 to March 31, 1982 and April 1, 1982 to March 17, 1986 and in the light of the said notifications, the petitioners are entitled to waiver and exemption in respect of the tax payable on the end-products or iron and steel falling within the scope of item 4 of the Second Schedule on condition that the raw materials specified in item 4 of the Second Schedule have suffered tax under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, and, therefore, the end-products manufactured by them are also entitled to such exemptions.

(3.) The occasion, as is claimed, for filing the writ petition is said to be the communication dated September 13, 1989 from the third respondent stating that in the light of the orders of the Government in G.O.P. No. 253 CT & RE dated March 17, 1986, the Government granted exemption in respect of the tax payable by any dealer under the Act on the sales of raw materials falling under item 4 of the Second Schedule to the Act to steel re-rolling mills in Tamil Nadu for manufacture of end-products falling under item 4 itself of the said Schedule, subject to the production of a declaration of purchase from the steel re-rolling mills and that since the petitioners are not having their re-rolling mills in Tamil Nadu, they are not eligible for concession granted in the notification dated March 17, 1986. The petitioner mainly relied upon the Division Bench judgment of this Court reported in Bhoruka Steel Limited v. Union of India (1989) 10 SISTC 19 and contended that the Government Order dated March 17, 1986 would be discriminatory and violative of article 301 read with article 304(a) of the Constitution of India. The petitioner also contends that the denial of exemption to the second and subsequent sales of re-rolled end-products of iron and steel dealt with by the petitioner is opposed to law and that there can be no denial of exemption to purchase of raw materials by re-rolling mills outside the State though the other facts and circumstances, as is claimed by the petitioner would justify the grant of exemption.