C form requirement under central sales tax law remains mandatory despite exemption notifications for concessional treatment.

Section 8(5) of the Central Sales Tax Act permits a State notification to grant further reduction or exemption, but it does not displace the statutory condition in section 8(4) requiring furnishing of C forms to claim the concessional rate under section 8. The notifications for edible oils reduced tax further and imposed conditions, yet they did not expressly waive the C form requirement where section 8(4) applied. The Supreme Court held that dealers could not rely on the exemption notifications without satisfying that precondition, while questions about the validity or genuineness of the forms were to be decided by the appropriate authorities in the pending proceedings.

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Issues: Whether a dealer claiming the benefit of exemption notifications issued under section 8(5) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 could avoid the statutory requirement of furnishing C forms under section 8(4) of the Act.

Analysis: Section 8(1) fixes the concessional rate of central sales tax for specified inter-State sales, while section 8(4) makes production of the prescribed declaration or certificate a condition for availing that concessional rate. Section 8(5) empowers the State Government to grant a further reduction or exemption by notification, but that power operates within the scheme of the Act and does not sever the notifications from the substantive requirements of section 8. The notifications in question reduced the rate further for edible oils and imposed their own conditions, but they did not purport to dispense with the statutory obligation of furnishing C forms where section 8(4) otherwise applied. The validity or genuineness of the C forms was left to be determined by the appropriate authorities in the pending proceedings.

Conclusion: The exemption notifications did not override the requirement of producing C forms under section 8(4); the dealers were not entitled to claim the notifications without satisfying the statutory precondition. The decision of the High Court was set aside and the appeals were allowed.

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