WARDEN MANIPAL ENGINEERING COLLEGE HOSTEL MANIPAL Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions raise a common question whether there can be said to be any sale of food to the students of a hostel by the hostel and as such liable to be assessed to sales tax under the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1957, hereinafter referred to as the Act.

(2.) The petitioners are the Wardens of the Manipal Engineering College Hostel, Manipal, and Kasturba Medical College Hostel, Manipal. Both the hostels, according to the allegations made in the affidavits filed in support of the writ petitions, provide boarding and lodging facilities for the students of the Engineering and Medical Colleges at Manipal and they run messes for the students in the said hostels. The students manage the hostels through secretaries chosen amongst themselves and the expenses incurred every month are divided amongst the students. These facts are not disputed by the respondents.

(3.) The Commercial Tax Officers, Udipi (respondent No. 3) assessed the wardens of the hostels to sales tax for the year 1961-62. Against the orders of assessment the petitioners preferred appeals to the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Mangalore Division, Mangalore (respondent No. 2). Before the said respondent, the petitioners, inter alia, challenged the constitutional validity of explanation (1) to the definition clause (t) of section 2(1) of the Act. The second respondent rightly refused to entertain the challenge made to the constitutional validity of explanation (1) of section 2(1)(t) of the Act. He, however, set aside the assessment orders of the third respondent on the ground that they were arbitrary. The third respondent was directed to make fresh assessment orders after correctly determining the turnovers from the books of account. In these writ petitions the petitioners have contended that there is no sale of goods by the hostels to the students residing and boarding in the hostels and as such the levy of sales tax is illegal. It is also urged that explanation (1) of section 2(1)(t) is beyond the legislative competence and, therefore, unconstitutional.