Khalid, J. - (1.) The petitioners are the same in these two petitions. They deal in brightbars. These are declared goods within the meaning of the provisions of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 as extended to Delhi, for short the State Act. They were assessed to sales tax under the said Act for the assessment years 1973-74 and 1974-75. These two writ petitions are filed to quash the assessment orders for the two years in question, on the ground that the assessment made under Section 5(2)(a)(ii) of the State Act is bad since it is inconsistent with the provisions of Section 15(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, (for short the Central Act) and violative of Article 286 (3) of the Constitution of India.
(2.) The petitioners have come straight to this Court by way of these writ petitions without exhausting the statutory remedies available to them. These petitions need not detain us long. An identical challenge fell for consideration before this Court in the case reported in Govind Saran Ganga Saran v. Commr. of Sales Tax, AIR 1985 SC 1041. The challenge was upheld and assessment order in that case was set aside.
(3.) The ratio of the decision is this Section 15(a) of the Central Act provides that every Sales Tax Law of State shall be subject to the restriction and condition that the tax payable under that law, on any declared goods, shall not exceed 3 per cent of the sale or purchase price thereof and that such tax shall not be levied at more than one stage. Section 5(2)(a)(ii) of the State Act, referred above, does not contain any guidelines as to the stage at which sales tax has to be laid upon a declared goods inside the State.. It is the omission in this section of this important prerequisite of Section 15 of the Central Act that persuaded this Court to set aside the assessment in the case referred above. The State Act, as applied to the Union Territory of Delhi, was amended by Parliament in 1959 and Section 5 A was inserted empowering the Chief Commissioner to specify, by notification in the official gazette, the point in the series of sales by successive dealers at which any goods or class of goods can be taxed. This Court observed that no notification was brought to its notice.;