Export-linked coal supply and statutory control order arrangements excluded sales tax and did not bar writ relief.

Supply of coal for export to East Pakistan was treated as part of an export transaction, so the export exemption and constitutional protection applied and the supply was not included in taxable turnover. The coal was also supplied under the Colliery Control Order, not under an ordinary contract of sale, so it lacked the contractual character required to qualify as a sale under the Act and could not be assessed to sales tax. The availability of a further statutory revision remedy did not bar relief under Article 226 where the assessment was challenged as beyond jurisdiction.

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Issues: (i) Whether the supply of coal to East Pakistan was exempt from sales tax as a sale in the course of export and therefore outside the taxable turnover under the Act and the Constitution. (ii) Whether the transaction, having been made under the Colliery Control Order, could be treated as a sale at all within the meaning of the Act. (iii) Whether the existence of an additional statutory remedy barred relief under Article 226 of the Constitution.

Issue (i): Whether the supply of coal to East Pakistan was exempt from sales tax as a sale in the course of export and therefore outside the taxable turnover under the Act and the Constitution.

Analysis: The supply was made for export to East Pakistan and the export formed an integral part of the bargain. The transaction could not be dissociated from the export that effectuated it. Even if property in the goods passed within West Bengal or the sale was completed there, the sale remained one in the course of export. On that footing, the statutory exemption and the constitutional protection both applied.

Conclusion: The transaction was exempt as a sale in the course of export and was not taxable on that basis.

Issue (ii): Whether the transaction, having been made under the Colliery Control Order, could be treated as a sale at all within the meaning of the Act.

Analysis: The coal was supplied under the authority and conditions of the Central Government under the control order, and not pursuant to an ordinary contract of sale between the parties. In such circumstances, the transaction lacked the essential contractual character of a sale as defined by the Act.

Conclusion: The transaction was not a sale within the meaning of the Act and therefore could not be assessed to sales tax.

Issue (iii): Whether the existence of an additional statutory remedy barred relief under Article 226 of the Constitution.

Analysis: Although a further statutory revision lay to the Board of Revenue, the appellant had already pursued other statutory remedies, and the challenge went to the jurisdiction of the taxing authorities. The availability of another remedy did not by itself oust the writ jurisdiction, particularly where the assessment was attacked as beyond jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The writ petition was maintainable and the existence of an unexhausted statutory remedy did not bar relief.

Final Conclusion: The assessment could not stand, as the transaction was protected by export exemption and was not a taxable sale, and the writ court was competent to grant relief.

Ratio Decidendi: A sale which is an integral part of an export transaction is exempt from sales tax, and a supply made under a statutory control order without an ordinary contract of sale is not a sale for tax purposes; the presence of an additional statutory remedy does not preclude writ relief where jurisdiction is challenged.

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