TMI Blog1955 (10) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... JJ. [Judgment per : S.R. Das, Actg. C.J.]. - This judgment will dispose of the four Criminal Appeals Nos. 107 to 110 of 1954. 2. These appeals have been filed by the State of Madras under certificates granted under Article 134(1)(c) of the Constitution by the High Court of Madras which, by its judgment in revision dated the 12th February, 1954, reversed the order dated the 29th December, 1952 passed by the Additional First Class Magistrate II, Salem, and acquitted the accused. 3. The respondents are merchants dealing in hides and skins in Salem. Their business consists mainly in the purchase of hides and skins and exporting the same to foreign countries. The respondents were assessed to sales tax in different amount on their resp ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he respondents to question the validity of the assessment. Relying on two decisions of the Madras High Court, the learned Magistrate upheld the contention of the prosecution on the scond point. The fact of assessment and non-payment of the assessed tax having been proved, the learned Magistrate convicted the respondents under Section 15(b) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act and sentenced them to varying fines with provision for simple imprisonment for 15 days in default of payment and also directed that the amount of sales tax remaining due from the respective respondents should be recovered as if the same were a fine. 6. Against their convictions, the respondents separately went up before the High Court in revision. The main controver ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion of the Magistrate but without remanding the case for retrial on the first point based on Article 286(1)(b) set aside the conviction and sentences passed by him. Being aggrieved by this order of acquittal the State of Madras has preferred these appeals with a certificate granted by the High Court under Article 134(1)(c) of the Constitution. 7.In the view we have taken about the validity of the assessments on which the prosecutions were founded, we do not considered it necessary on this occasion to expect any opinon on any of the question raised about the validity or otherwise of Section 16A of the Madras General Sales Tax Act. We have gone through the record carefully and we have come to the conclusion, for reason to be presently state ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that whenever he got orders from the London buyers for skins, of any of the respondents he used to contact the particular respondent, that after the price was settled and the order was accepted the respondent concerned used to send the skins to the intermediary who was also the shipping agent at Madras, that the latter, after assorting them according to the size and range and rejecting those which were unfit for export, used to send them to the London buyers. The evidence of the respective clerks quite clearly indicates that upon the shipping agent and the intermediary intimating that skins of certain types were required by the London buyers and after the price was settled with the intermediaries, the respondents would purchase the goods ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of this Court in the - State of Travancore-Cochin v. Shanmugha Vilas Cashew Nut Factory - AIR 1953 SC 333. In this view of the matter, there can be no question that these purchases were liable to be included in the turnover and assessed to sale tax. Even if, therefore, we concede, without deciding it, that Section 16A did not prevent the respondents from questioning the validity of the assessment, it was quite impossible for the respondents, on the evidence adduced by them, to contend, in view of the majority decision referred to above, that the purchases were exempt from sales tax by virtue of Article 286(1)(b), that the assessments were illegal and that consequently the non-payment thereof was not an offence. In our view, the High Cou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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