Hegde, J. - (1.) This appeal by certificate arises from the decision of the Allahabad High Court in Civil Misc. Writ No. 6424 of 1971. The appellants are brick manufacturers in the District of Lucknow. They are registered dealers under the U. P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 (to be hereinafter referred to as the Act). They challenge the assessment proceedings under the Act for the assessment years 1968-69, 1969-70, 1970-71 and 1971-72 and contest the validity of Section 3-AB of the Act which was incorporated into the Act by the U. P. Sales Tax (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1971 (No. 20 of 1971). They contest the validity of that provision on various grounds. The High Court rejected those contentions and dismissed the writ petition. Hence this appeal.
(2.) Though the question of law arising for decision in this case are fairly simple, this case has a long history. It is necessary to refer briefly to the struggle that went on between the State and the brick manufacturers, culminating in the enactment of the impugned provision, S. 3AB. The Act was enacted in 1948. Section 3 therein imposes multi-point sales tax on the sale of certain goods. Section 3-A was inserted in the Act in that very year. That section empowered the Government to levy sales tax on some of the goods "at such single point in the series of sales by successive dealers" as may be prescribed by the State Government. Several notifications were issued under S. 3A. The first notification with which we are concerned is ST-906/X dated March 31, 1956. Under that notification, sales tax was imposed on the turnover of the sale of bricks at the point of sale by the manufacturer. That notification was superseded by notification No. ST.1365/X-990 dated April 1, 1960. That notification was again superseded by notification No. ST 6438/X-1012 dated December 1, 1962. These notifications inter alia varied the rate of tax to be levied over the turnover relating to bricks. The validity of these notifications was challenged before the High Court of Allahabad in Gurna Mal v. State of U. P., (1970) 26 STC 270 (All). During the pendency of the case, the Governor of U. P. issued U. P. Sales Tax Act (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance 1970. This Ordinance purported to amend S. 3A (1) with retrospective effect and validate the notifications already issued. It also purported to validate the assessments made and the tax recovered under the said notifications. That Ordinance sought to substitute the words "at such single point in the series of sales by successive dealers as the State Government may specify" by the words "at such single point of sale as the State Government may specify". But the court held that the notifications did not fall within the purview of Section 3-A as in the State of U. P. bricks were sold directly to the consumers by the manufacturers. The court opined that before S. 3A can be attracted, the goods in question must have been the subject-matter of multiple sales. It further held that the amendment effected by the 1970 Ordinance was ineffective to save the notifications. Thereafter the U. P. legislature passed the U. P. Sales Tax (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1970. That Act substituted sub-s. (1) of S. 3-A. The substituted Section read: " Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 3, the State Government may, by notification in the official gazette, declare that the turnover in respect of any goods or class of goods shall not be liable to tax except at such single point of sale as the State Government may specify and such declaration may be made notwithstanding that the goods or class of goods are not capable of being sold or according to the prevalent commercial practice are not ordinarily sold at more than one point."
(3.) Under that Act, the assessments made were sought to be validated and the tax recovered protected. The validity of that amendment came up for consideration before the Allahabad High Court in Krishna Brick Field v. State of U. P., 29 STC 15. A Full Bench of that High Court held that Section 3-A (1) was unconstitutional inasmuch as it delegated essential legislative functions to the State Government and further the power conferred under S. 3A to the Government was an arbitrary power and consequently it was violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution. After that decision, the U. P. legislature again amended the Act by U. P. Sales Tax (Amendment and Validiation) Act, 1971 (Act 20 of 1971). The said amending Act incorporated into the Act S. 3AB (1) which reads: " Notwithstanding any judgment, decree or order of any court, any tax imposed, assessed, levied or collected, or purporting to have been imposed, assessed, levied or collected before the commencement of the U. P. Sales Tax (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1971, under any of the notifications specified in the Second Schedule shall be deemed to have been validly imposed, assessed, levied or collected in accordance with law, as if the said notifications had been included in and formed part of this section and this section had been in force at all material times when such tax was imposed, assessed, levied or collected.";