Prescription-based medicine dispensing can amount to manufacture for sale and attract sales tax under the statutory definition.

A medical practitioner who dispenses medicines prepared on his own prescriptions was treated as a dealer manufacturing or producing goods for sale under the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948. The Court reasoned that the professional service of diagnosis ends with the prescription, and the subsequent preparation and supply of medicine amounts to sale of a finished commercial article. Medicines brought into existence for patients were treated as commercial commodities capable of sale, bringing the practitioner within the statutory definition of dealer. The objection based on alternative remedy was also rejected because the writ petition was entertained and decided on merits.

---

---

Issues: Whether a medical practitioner who dispenses medicines prepared on his own prescriptions is a dealer who himself manufactures or produces goods for sale within the meaning of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, and is therefore liable to sales tax.

Analysis: The petitioner carried on a medical practice and dispensed medicines only on his own prescriptions. The Court held that the professional service of diagnosis ends when the prescription is written, and the preparation and supply of the medicine thereafter constitutes a sale of a finished commercial article. The Court preferred the view that goods brought into existence for supply to patients are commercial commodities capable of sale, and that the process of dispensing medicines on prescriptions amounts to manufacturing or producing goods for sale within the statutory definition of dealer. The Court also held that the preliminary objection based on alternative remedy could not succeed in the circumstances, since the writ petition was entertained and decided on merits.

Conclusion: The petitioner was held to be a dealer who himself manufactures or produces goods for sale and was liable to sales tax; the writ petition failed.

---