Gajendragadkar, J. - (1.) The appellant, the Indore Iron and Steel Registered Stock-holders' Association (Private) Ltd., is a registered Association whose constituent members carry on business generally in fabricated iron and steel material and more particularly in iron sheets, plain or corrugated, bars, rods, light and heavy structurals, nails, joints, wire nails and all kinds and varieties of wires and pipes. This business is carried on by the constituent members of the appellant at Indore and Ratlam at which places they have their registered offices. The State of Madhya Bharat, by its Act No. 30 of 1950, imposed sales tax in the territory of Madhya Bharat on the sales of goods therein specified with effect from May 1, 1950, and under the provisions of the said Act the Commissioner of Sales Tax, Madhya Bharat, and the Sales Tax Officer, Indore, who are respondents 2 and 3, were appointed authorities for the assessment of tax leviable under the Act and for its recovery in their respective areas.
(2.) Section 3 of the Act is the charging section and it provides for the incidence of taxation. Section 4, which deals with the application of the Act, exemption and exclusion, provides by sub-sec. ( 2) that no tax shall be payable under the Act on the sale of goods specified in the second column of Schedule 1 on conditions mentioned in column 3 of the Schedule. "Iron and steel" appears in Schedule 1 as item 39. Section 5 prescribes the rate of tax and it provides that the tax will be recoverable as notified from time to time by the Government by publication in the official gazette subject to the condition that it shall not be less than Rs. 1-9-0 per cent, or more than 6 1/4 per cent. Section 4 (3) authorises the Government by notification to modify Schedule 1 from time to time. Similarly S. 5 (2) authorises the Government while notifying the tax payable by a dealer to notify the goods and the point of their sale at which the tax is payable. It is by virtue of this delegated power that the State of Madhya Bharat, respondent 1, purported to issue notifications to which we will presently refer.
(3.) On May 22, 1950; a notification was issued under S. 5 (2) specifying serially the articles taxed, the stage of sale by traders in Madhya Bharat on which the tax is levied and the rate of sales tax per cent. Item 27 in the list dealt with goods manufactured from things (wastu) except gold and silver or goods manufactured from more than one metal (except circles and sheets of copper, brass and aluminium). The notification provided that the tax had to be paid by the producer or importer at the rate of Rs. 3-2-0 per cent.;