Constitutional challenge to amended sales tax provision failed, and transport charges were treated as part of taxable turnover.

An amended purchase tax provision in the Karnataka Sales Tax Act was upheld because it was materially similar to a provision already approved by the Supreme Court, so the constitutional challenge failed. On turnover, transport charges were treated as part of sale price where the assessment showed the sales took place at destination and price and quantity were worked out after transportation. The court declined to disturb that factual finding in writ jurisdiction under articles 226 and 227, noting that any challenge to the assessment should have been pursued through the appellate remedy.

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Issues: (i) Whether the amended section 6 of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957, as substituted by Karnataka Act No. 9 of 1970, was unconstitutional. (ii) Whether transport charges were liable to be excluded while computing the turnover in the assessment under challenge.

Issue (i): Whether the amended section 6 of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957, as substituted by Karnataka Act No. 9 of 1970, was unconstitutional.

Analysis: The amendment introduced a purchase tax provision substantially similar to provisions upheld in other States. The Supreme Court had already approved the Kerala model provision and rejected the contrary view of the Madras High Court. Since the Karnataka provision was in substance the same, the earlier constitutional reasoning was treated as governing the challenge to section 6.

Conclusion: The challenge to the validity of the amended section failed.

Issue (ii): Whether transport charges were liable to be excluded while computing the turnover in the assessment under challenge.

Analysis: The assessment record showed that the sales were treated as taking place at the destination, with quantity and price worked out after transportation, indicating that the transport element formed part of the sale price. The dispute turned on factual findings by the assessing authority, and such disputed factual matters were not fit to be re-examined in writ jurisdiction under articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India. An appellate remedy was the proper course if the factual finding was said to be wrong.

Conclusion: The finding including transport charges in the turnover was not interfered with.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was rejected in full, and the assessment and the statutory amendment challenge both remained undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: A constitutional challenge to an amended sales tax provision fails where the impugned provision is materially the same as a provision already upheld, and factual findings on turnover in a tax assessment will not be disturbed in writ proceedings merely because they are contested.

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