TaxTMI Login
AI OCR ✕Convert scanned orders, printed notices, PDFs and images into clean, searchable, editable text within seconds. Starting at 2 Credits/page
Try Now →Just a moment...
AI OCR ✕Convert scanned orders, printed notices, PDFs and images into clean, searchable, editable text within seconds. Starting at 2 Credits/page
Try Now →
Press 'Enter' to add multiple search terms. Rules for Better Search
Use comma for multiple locations.
---------------- For section wise search only -----------------
Accuracy Level ~ 90%
of 
Press 'Enter' after typing page number.
of Press 'Enter' after typing page number.
No Folders have been created
Are you sure you want to delete "My most important" ?
NOTE:
of Press 'Enter' after typing page number.
of Press 'Enter' after typing page number.
All Case Laws
of Press 'Enter' after typing page number.
of Press 'Enter' after typing page number.
All Case Laws
Note
Bookmark
Share
Don't have an account? Register Here
of Press 'Enter' after typing page number.
Issues: (i) Whether the earlier writ proceedings barred the present claims by res judicata or constructive res judicata; (ii) whether a del credere agent could be treated as a dealer and whether sales through such agent entitled the assessee to deduction from taxable turnover; (iii) whether the assessment could be challenged in writ jurisdiction despite the availability of appeal.
Issue (i): Whether the earlier writ proceedings barred the present claims by res judicata or constructive res judicata.
Analysis: The earlier decision had expressly dealt only with taxability of sales outside the State and had not considered or decided the claim to deduction for intra-State sales through del credere agents. Res judicata in writ proceedings applies only where the issue has been decided expressly or by necessary implication. Where the judgment contains no adjudication at all on a claim, even constructive res judicata does not arise.
Conclusion: The claim was not barred by res judicata or constructive res judicata.
Issue (ii): Whether a del credere agent could be treated as a dealer and whether sales through such agent entitled the assessee to deduction from taxable turnover.
Analysis: The statutory definitions of dealer under the sales tax laws were wide enough to include a del credere agent or other mercantile agent acting on behalf of a principal. The real question, however, was whether in the particular transactions the agent acted as a mere guarantor or as a principal in commercial substance. If the agent functioned as a pakka adtya or otherwise as a principal, there would be an intermediate sale to him and the declaration for resale would support deduction. If he acted only as a conduit for the consumer, no sale to him would exist and the declaration would not justify deduction. The controlling order governing coal movement permitted purchase through a del credere agent and contemplated a margin or brokerage on resale, so the factual character of each transaction had to be examined.
Conclusion: The del credere agent could not be held, as a matter of law, to be outside the statutory definition of dealer, and entitlement to deduction depended on whether he acted as a principal in the individual transactions.
Issue (iii): Whether the assessment could be challenged in writ jurisdiction despite the availability of appeal.
Analysis: The existence of an alternative statutory remedy did not bar the exercise of writ jurisdiction where the question was one of general importance and the remedy was not adequate for deciding the legal issue authoritatively. The challenge to the assessment and the consequences of the remand order could therefore be examined in writ proceedings.
Conclusion: The writ petitions were maintainable.
Final Conclusion: The assessment order and the remand directions treating del credere agents as non-dealers were quashed, and the matter was sent back for fresh assessment on the correct legal footing after determining the true capacity of the agents in the individual transactions.
Ratio Decidendi: In sales tax law, where an agent's status determines deductibility, the authority must examine the real commercial character of the transaction and not deny deduction merely because the agent is styled as a del credere agent; res judicata in writ proceedings arises only from issues actually decided expressly or by necessary implication.
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
