BOWEN PRESS Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under S. 61(1) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as "the said Act"). the question referred to us for our determination are as follows : Whether the Tribunal was correct in law in holding that the printed wrappers sold by the applicants could be said to be covered by the words 'paper adapted for use in packing foods' within the meaning of entry 6 of Schedule C to the said Act ?

(2.) Whether the Tribunal was justified in disallowing the sales of Rs. 2,86,061/- even though the applicants satisfied that the buyer is a recognised dealer and has issued the required certificate in Form 15 and that the goods purchased by him were specified in his recognition certificate ?

(3.) The relevant facts giving rise to this question are as follows : The applicants are registered dealers and are running a printing press. They supplied packing labels to Parle products private Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Parle Products" against certificates in Form 15. Parle Products are also registered dealers and had obtained a recognition certificate as provided under S. 25 of the said Act, as it stood at the relevant time, in which one of the items specified in the list of appended was packing labels. The Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax issued a notice in Form 40 to the Parle Products alleging that certain admissible items were included in the recognition certificate of the Parle Products and stated therein that it was proposed to delete those items. One of these items, referred to in this notice was packing labels. After hearing the Parle Products the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax by his order dated 25th April 1961 directed that the said packing labels which were said to be actually printed wrappers were to be retained in the recognition certificate. In the assessment of the applicants for period from 1-7-1961 to 30-6-1962 the Sales Tax Officer assessing the applicants did not allow as deduction from the turnover of sales of the applicants a sum of Rs. 2,86,061/- being the amount representing the price of the packing labels sold by the applicants to the Parle Products during the relevant period. This deduction was disallowed by the Sales Tax Officer on the ground that the question were covered by entry 6 of Schedule C to the said Act as it then stood, and hence could not be sold against Form 15.