COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX MAHARASHTRA STATE Vs. MAHARASHTRA AGRO INDUSTRIES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AT the instance of the Commissioner of Sales Tax Maharashtra State, Bombay, the Maharashtra Sales Tax Tribunal has raised certain questions of law for the opinion of this Court under Section 61 (1) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959.

(2.) SINCE the issues raised in all these Reference are common, all these four references are heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment. For the sake of convenience, we have taken the facts in the case of Maharashtra Agro Industries Development Corporation Limited and the decision in that case will apply to all other cases.

(3.) THE questions raised for the opinion of this Court in all these references read as follows: s. T. R. No. 15 of 2000 and S. T. R. No. 3 of 2002 whether the activity of mixing fertilizer in different proportion and selling them after granulation amounts to manufacture within a meaning of section 2 (17) of the Bombay Act? s. T. R. No. 5 of 2000 and S. T. R. No. 2 of 2000 whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of M/s. Shaw Wallace and Co. Ltd. , V/s. State of Tamil Nadu, (37) STC 522) the Tribunal was justified in law in holding that the activity of mixing various chemical fertilizers in different proportion and selling the said mixture in granulated form does not constitute a manufacturing activity under Section 2 (17) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959?