BROWN LEATHER COMPANY Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS batch of writ petitions involves for consideration the constitutional validity and legality of section 3 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax (Third Amendment) Act (Tamil Nadu Act 31 of 1987) substituting item No. 7 and the relevant entries thereto in the Second Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, hereinafter referred to as "the State Act". Though in the majority of the cases, with certain rare exception, a declaratory relief is sought for that the impugned provisions are illegal and ultra vires article 286(3) of the Constitution of India, read with sections 14 and 15 of the Central Sales Tax, 1956, hereinafter referred to as "the Central Act", irrespective of the nature of the relief sought and even in respect of cases involving a challenge to individual orders, so far as the gravamen as well as the sum and substance of the grounds of challenge are concerned, they are identical and almost similar. As a matter of fact, the learned counsel appearing for the various petitioners refrained from referring to any factual details relating to an individual assessee or the nature of transactions that are sought to be subjected to tax in individual cases by invoking the impugned provisions of the State Act, though in some of the affidavits we find claims having been made about the character and identity of the goods, hides and skins at raw and dressed stage.

(2.) TO appreciate the points raised as well as to understand the changes brought about by the impugned provisions of the Act, a bird's eye view of the salient features of the scheme underlying the provisions prior to, on account of and after the impugned Act, may be usefully referred to. Even under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1939 and the Rules made thereunder the commodity "hides and skins" had been classified as "raw hides and skins" and "dressed hides and skins" and were subjected to levy alternatively in that levying tax primarily at the raw stage and resorting to levy of tax at the dressed stage only in cases where the hides and skins concerned were not subjected to tax as raw hides and skins. Volume of case law has grown on this, in the shape of both the decisions of the Supreme Court of India and this Court. That was in respect of the period up to March 31, 1959. On and from April 1, 1959, the provisions of the 1959 Act came to occupy the field and that item 7 of the Second Schedule to the State Act dealt with the levy of sales tax in respect of intra-State transactions. In the meantime came the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (Central Act 74 of 1956) and the provisions of the said Act, except section 15, came into force on January 5, 1957. Section 15, however, came into force from October 1, 1958 in the form it was amended by the Central Act 31 of 1958.

(3.) SECTION 14 of the Central Act, in so far as it is relevant for the purpose of these cases, is as hereunder :