THANSINGH NATHMAL AND ORS. Vs. A. MAJID, SUPERINTENDENT OF TAXES AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL these fourteen applications have been presented under Article 226 of the Constitution. The petitioners in these cases pray for writs of certiorari, mandamus or any other appropriate writ for quashing certain orders of the officers of the Sales Tax Department passed against the petitioners and for prohibiting the respondents from taking any action under the said orders.

(2.) THE relevant facts omitting unnecessary details, (special features in certain cases apart, to which I shall refer later) are these. The petitioners are merchants carrying on business, inter alia, as dealers in jute. Their head office and principal place of business are both situated in Calcutta but they purchase jute at Dhubri in the district of Goalpara and are registered dealers within the meaning of the Assam Sales Tax Act (Assam Act 14 of 1947), hereinafter called "the Act".

(3.) I have narrated above the cases of the parties which are common to all the applications. For obvious reasons, in these applications under Article 226 of the Constitution, we will avoid entering the arena of disputed facts but I have broadly summed up the relevant allegations in order to appreciate the points urged. The decision in these cases will have to proceed largely and in fact entirely upon the facts found by the officers of the Department unless the findings are discovered to be speculative or in direct opposition to the facts disclosed.