Check-post and transit inspection scheme upheld as a valid measure to enforce sales tax law.

Section 37 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973, together with rule 45 and Forms 38 and 39, were examined as a check-post and inspection scheme for goods in transit. Applying the same rationale as an earlier decision upholding a similar transit-control framework, the SC accepted that such measures are designed to facilitate enforcement of sales tax law and regulate movement of goods through inspection and documentation. The statutory provisions were therefore upheld, and the challenge to the Haryana transit inspection framework failed.

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Issues: Whether section 37 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973, rule 45, and Forms 38 and 39 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Rules, 1975, which establish check-post and inspection machinery for goods in transit, were valid.

Analysis: The provision and the connected rules and forms were examined in the light of the earlier decision upholding a similar statutory scheme designed to facilitate inspection of goods moving from one State to another through a third State. The same rationale was applied to the Haryana enactment, namely that such measures are intended to aid effective enforcement of the sales tax law and control transit movements of goods.

Conclusion: The provisions were upheld and the challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions were disposed of by sustaining the statutory check-post and inspection framework under the Haryana sales tax law.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory scheme creating check-posts and requiring transit documentation for inspection of goods in inter-State movement is valid when enacted to facilitate enforcement of sales tax law.

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