A.M.KHANWILKAR,J. - (1.) The principal question involved in these appeals is whether the subject sales (of goods imported from foreign country and after unloading the same on the landmass of the State of West Bengal, kept in the bonded warehouse without payment of customs duty) to foreign bound ships as "ship stores" can be regarded as sale within the territory of the State and amenable to sales tax under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1954 (for short, 'the 1954 Act') or the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 (for short, 'the 1994 Act').
(2.) The admitted factual position in the present cases is that after importing foreign made cigarettes, the appellants stored the same in the customs bonded warehouse within the landmass of the State of West Bengal and some of those articles were sold to the Master of a foreigngoing ship as ship stores, without payment of customs duty. Those goods were escorted to the stated ship under the supervision of the officials of the Customs authority.
(3.) These appeals take exception to the judgment and order of the High Court at Calcutta (for short, 'the High Court'), dated 16.8.2007 in W.P.T.T. Nos. 5/2007 and 6/2007 respectively, whereby it had upheld the decision of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal (for short, 'the Tribunal') that the stated sales were within the territory of the State of West Bengal and amenable to sales tax.;