Sales tax liability follows the true seller in law, even when another party has already reported and paid tax.

A person who, in law, sells goods and transfers them to outside buyers by endorsing railway receipts remains liable to sales tax as a dealer, even if the goods were shown in another company's return and tax was paid by that company. The court treated the assessee as the seller because the goods remained his property until endorsement, the bills stood in his name, and he invoiced the outside purchasers. The other party's return and tax payment did not extinguish the assessee's independent liability on the same transactions.

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Issues: Whether the assessee was liable to sales tax on sales of sugar despatched outside the State of Bihar, notwithstanding that the sugar company had shown the transactions as taxable sales in its own return and had paid tax thereon.

Analysis: The facts showed that the goods were despatched by the company showing the assessee as consignee in the railway receipts, bills were prepared in the name of the assessee, and the assessee in turn billed the outside buyers and endorsed the railway receipts in their favour. On that footing, the goods remained the property of the assessee until endorsement and the assessee, not the company, was the seller in law. The statutory definition of dealer covered a person who sells or supplies goods for commission or otherwise, and the sales to outside purchasers fell within the definition of sale under the Act. The company's inclusion of the same transactions in its own return and payment of tax did not negative the assessee's independent liability on the sales made by him.

Conclusion: The assessee was liable to sales tax on the disputed outside-State sales and the answer was against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The references were answered in favour of the department, holding the assessee liable to sales tax on the transactions in question.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a person, even on a commission basis, sells goods in law and transfers them to outside buyers by endorsing the railway receipts, he is a dealer liable to sales tax on those sales, and tax paid by another person on the same transactions does not by itself extinguish that liability.

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