MAHABALESHWAR CLUB Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under section 61 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, in respect of a club situated in Mahabaleshwar, and the questions which have been referred to us are as follows :

(2.) The facts of the case are that the Mahabaleshwar Club made an application under section 52 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, to the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, Central Division, Poona, to determine whether it was a dealer within the meaning of that term in section 2(11) of the Act. The Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax decided that the applicant was not a dealer, but the Commissioner of Sales Tax, acting under his powers of revision under section 57 of the said Act, held that the applicant-Club was a dealer. The applicant-Club then applied in revision to the Sales Tax Tribunal which dismissed the revision application and confirmed the view taken by the Commissioner of Sales Tax. At the instance of the Club, the two questions set out above have thereafter been referred to us under the Act.

(3.) The first question that arises for the purpose of determining whether or not the applicant-Club is a dealer is one which turns entirely on a construction of the definition of the term "dealer" in section 2(11) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959. In construing the provisions of the definition contained therein, it is necessary, first and foremost, to bear in mind that the Mahabaleshwar Club is an unincorporated body, and, indeed, that is what distinguishes the case on the present reference from the reference in the case of Versova Koli Sahakari Vahatuk Sangh Ltd. in Sales Tax Reference No. 27 of 1964 which was determined by us on 12th January, 1968 (Since reported at page 116 supra), in which the applicants were a registered society and were, therefore, a body corporate and were held by us to fall within the substantive opening portion of the definition of "dealer" in section 2(11) of the Act.