KHAITAN MINERALS Vs. SALES TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL FOR MYSORE AT BANGALORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) When these cases were posted on the board, they were not clubbed together for hearing. We happened to hear these revision petitions together under circumstances to be mentioned hereinafter. They raise common questions of law and therefore they could be conveniently dealt with in one judgment. We shall first take up C.R.P. No. 864 of 1959.

(2.) The turnover of the business of the petitioner, who is a dealer in manganese ore in Sandur, Bellary District, was held liable to be assessed to sales tax by the Commercial Tax Officer, Bellary. His order was affirmed by the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. The petitioner's appeal to the Mysore Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Bangalore, in Case No. S.T.A. 165 of 1958 ended unsuccessfully. Hence this revision petition.

(3.) The contention of the petitioner is that the disputed turnover is protected by Article 286 of the Indian Constitution as it stood prior to its amendment in 1956 and section 27 of the Mysore Sales Tax Act which is but a faithful reproduction of Article 286. The plea advanced on behalf of the petitioner both before the authorities below and in this Court is that the disputed transactions are sales effected outside the Mysore State and therefore the turnover relating to them is exempt from any sales tax in view of Article 286(1)(a); in the alternative they should be considered as inter-State sales protected by Article 286(2).