KELVINATOR OF INDIA LIMITED Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Sales Tax Tribunal, Haryana, by its order dated 10th August, 1970, referred the following question of law for the opinion of this court : Whether on the facts and circumstances of the case, the agreement between M/s, Kelvinator of India (assessee) and M/s. Spencer and Co. Ltd. , M/s. Blue Star Engineering Co. and M/s. General Equipment Ltd. , in pursuance of which the refrigerators manufactured by M/s. Kelvinator of India at Faridabad moved to Delhi were merely for distribution of goods between the principal and his agents or were agreements of sale between two parties ?

(2.) WHEN another reference No. G. S. T. 1 of 1965, (M/s. Krishan Lal Kashmiri Lal v. The State [1971] 27 S. T. C. 578, was placed before me and Sandhawalia, J. , by our order dated 8th January, 1970, we directed "the Tribunal to state the case properly. In order to guide the Tribunal, we suggest that a copy of an income-tax reference pending in this court be sent to the Tribunal so that it is known how a case is to be stated. The attention of the Tribunal is invited to the relevant part of Section 22 (4) of the Sales Tax Act". Keeping this direction in view, Mr. M. L. Batra, the then Sales Tax Tribunal, in the present case drew up the statement of the case and referred the question of law set out above for the opinion of this court. Thereafter, the present reference was placed before me and Gopal Singh, J. , on 24th March, 1971. Mr. Sibal, the learned counsel for the assessee at the hearing, pointed out that the agreements between the assessee and the distributors, that is, the distribution agreements dated 26th April, 1965, 15th September, 1965 and 11th December, 1965, had not been made part of the statement of the case, as also the Tribunal's order dated 24th November, 1969, on the review application made on 14th August, 1969. There were certain other documents which the counsel stated should have been made part of the statement of the case. For instance, the modified original assessment order dated 2nd May, 1968 and the affidavits filed by the assessee before the Assessing Authority dated 10th June, 1966, 29th March, 1967, 30th March, 1967 and 31st March, 1967. On the submissions of the learned counsel, I and my learned brother Gopal Singh, J. , recorded the following order : It appears to us that the Tribunal is not aware of the practice that is normally followed when the statement of the case is drawn up. The practice is that a notice is issued to the assessee and in the presence of the departmental representative and the assessee an agreed statement of the case is drawn up. If there is any divergence between the two, the Tribunal records its findings and its reasons for accepting one view point or the other. In the present case, it appears that the statement of the case was drawn up without calling upon the assessee to be present and that is why all these omissions have been made.

(3.) A direction was then issued to the Tribunal to follow the aforesaid procedure and draw up a proper statement of the case. This has been done and the following question has been referred for our opinion : Whether on the facts and circumstances of the case, the agreements between M/s. Kelevinator of India Ltd. , (assessee) and M/s. Spencer and Co. Ltd. , M/s. Blue Star Engineering Co. , Bombay and M/s. General Equipment Merchants in pursuance of which all refrigerators manufactured by M/s. Kelvinator of India at Faridabad moved to Delhi were merely for distribution of goods between principal and its agents or were agreements of sale between the parties.