Club supplies as business determine dealer status under sales tax law; writ relief was refused on an incomplete record.

A members' club supplying goods to its members can be treated as a dealer under sales tax law only if the supplies are carried on as a business. The Bombay HC held that the club reference in the definition of dealer must be read consistently with the business requirement, so liability depends on proof of business activity and not merely club membership. On the record before it, the Court could not determine whether any profit-making motive or business character existed, and the prior registration order had not been challenged through the statutory appellate route. Writ relief was therefore refused and the registration and assessment were left undisturbed.

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Issues: Whether a members' club supplying goods to its members can be treated as a dealer carrying on business under the sales tax law, and whether the writ petition challenging registration and assessment could succeed on the material before the Court.

Analysis: The definition of dealer required the carrying on of the business of selling or supplying goods, and the reference to a club in the definition had to be read consistently with that requirement. A club supplying goods to members would attract liability only if such supplies were made as a business. On the material placed before the Court, the existence or absence of a profit-making motive could not be determined, and the earlier registration order had not been challenged through the statutory appellate remedy. The Court therefore declined to interfere in writ jurisdiction on an incomplete factual record.

Conclusion: The petitioner failed to establish that the impugned registration and assessment were erroneous on the record before the Court, and the writ petition was dismissed.

Final Conclusion: The decision left the factual question of business activity open, but upheld the refusal of writ relief and left the statutory action undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: A club is liable to be treated as a dealer only if its supply of goods to members is shown to be carried on as a business.

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