Electricity as goods under sales tax law supported dealer registration and made cancellation of the certificate unsustainable.

Electricity was treated as movable property capable of transmission and delivery, and therefore as "goods" within the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959 and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. The statutory scheme, including Sections 8(1)(b) and 8(3)(b), was read as recognising a distributor of electricity as a registered dealer eligible for concessional treatment on goods used in distribution. Section 39 of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 was also relied on as supporting electricity's character as property. On that construction, electricity was not excluded from the statutory meaning of goods, and the cancellation of the registration certificate was held unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether electricity is "goods" for the purposes of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959 and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, and whether the cancellation of the registration certificate granted to the petitioner under the Central Sales Tax Act was valid.

Analysis: Electricity was held to answer the description of property capable of movement, transmission and delivery, and therefore to fall within the concept of movable property. The statutory scheme of the Central Sales Tax Act, especially the combined operation of Section 8(1)(b) and Section 8(3)(b), showed that the legislature contemplated a distributor of electricity as a registered dealer entitled to the concessional rate in respect of goods used for distribution of electricity. Section 39 of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 also treated electricity as property capable of dishonest abstraction and supported that view. On that construction, electricity was not excluded from the meaning of goods.

Conclusion: Electricity is goods for the relevant sales tax enactments, and the cancellation of the petitioner's registration certificate could not stand.

Final Conclusion: The petitions succeeded and the impugned cancellation orders were quashed, with costs.

Ratio Decidendi: Electricity, being movable property capable of transmission and delivery, is goods, and a statutory scheme granting concessional tax for goods used in the distribution of electricity necessarily treats a distributor of electricity as a dealer entitled to registration.

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