KARAM CHAND THAPAR AND BROS COAL SALES LIMITED Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant in Civil Appeal No. 928 of 1975, M/s. Karam Chand Thapar and Brothers, is a limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, (referred to hereinafter as the Company), and the six branches of the Company at Allahabad, Moradabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Lucknow are the appellants in Civil Appeal No. 929 of 1975. The Company carries on business as coal agents and is registered under the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Act, 1948 and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 with the Sales Tax Officer at Moradabad in Utter Pradesh. We shall refer to these two statutes as the U. P. Act and the Central Act for the sake of brevity. The Company used to arrange supply of coal from colleries situate in West Bengal and Bihar to consumers in Uttar Pradesh. The collieries used to sent the coal by rail and the railway receipts wer prepared either in the name of the Company or in the name of the consumer in Utter Pradesh on whose behalf the order for supply of coal was placed. The collieries sent the bills and invoices in respect of the coal despatched to Uttar Pradesh to the Company's head office in Calcutta; the Company forwarded the railway receipts to the consumers in cases where the receipts were in the names of the consumers and endorsed the receipts that were in the Company's name in favour of the consumers for whom the coal had been despatched. These two appeals, brought on certificates of fitness granted by the Allahabad High Court, arise out of two writ petitions filed in the High Court respectively by the Company and its aforesaid branches. The petition filed by the company, leading to Civil Appeal 928, is directed against an order made under Section 22 of the U. P. Act giving rise to the question whether Section 9(1) of the Central Act was applicable to the case enabling the State of Uttar Pradesh to levy and collect Central Sales Tax in respect of subsequent sales of coal effected by the Company to consumers in Uttar Pradesh by endorsement of the documents of title, in the other writ petition, filed by Company's six branches, the applicability of Section 9(1) of the Central Act was one of the points raised in the High Court, but this was the only point urged before us in Civil Appeal No. 929. The assessment year in question in Civil Appeal 928 is 1966-67, and that in Civil Appeal 929 is 1969-70. As the Company's appeal covers the question involved in the other case and raises two additional questions, we shall state only the facts of Civil Appeal 928 to indicate how these questions arise.

(2.) In the assessment year 1966-67, the Company filed quarterly returns showing its turnover of coal in two categories:

(3.) The dispute in this case turns on whether the proviso to Section 9(1) is applicable to the case. Reference may also be made to Section 15 which provides the restrictions and conditions in regard to the tax on sale or purchase of declared goods within a State. The tax on sale or purchase of such goods inside the State is not to exceed three per cent of the price thereof, and such tax is not to be levied at more than one stage.