(1.) The assesses is a spinning mill at Tirupur. It was assessed to sales tax in the assessment year 1951-52 on its" purchases of cotton for spinning under Rule 4A (iv) of the Turnover and Assessment Rules, which prescribed the single point for the levy of sales tax on transactions in cotton required by Section 5(ii) of the Sales-tax Act. The relevant portion of Rule 4-A(iv) as it then stood ran:
(2.) The nature of the transactions was thus summed up by the Tribunal;
(3.) The assessee contended (1) that its purchases were in the course of import and that they were therefore protected from any levy of tax by Art. 286(1)(b) of the Constitution. (2) Alternatively, they were purchases in the course of inter- State commerce, which Madras could not tax as the delivery of the goods purchased was effected outside the State of Madras; and (3) Rule 4-A(iv) of the Turnover and Assessment Rules was ultra vires, and, in the absence of a valid prescription of a single point for the levy of tax on sales and purchases of cotton required by Section 5(ii) of the Act, an assessee could not he subjected to any tax liability. These contentions which were rejected by the Tribunal have been pressed again before us.