Photographic services treated as works contract, not sale of goods, where skill, labour, and composite consideration dominate.

Photographic services involving taking the image, developing the negative, and supplying prints for a composite lump sum were treated as a contract for skill and labour, not a sale of goods. Applying Supreme Court authority, the preparation and supply of photographs could not be taxed as a sale under sales tax law. The decisive principle is that where the photographer's work is dominated by expertise and labour, with materials only incidental to the service, the transaction is a works contract rather than a taxable sale.

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Issues: Whether the turnover from photographs taken and supplied by the assessee constituted a works contract or a sale liable to tax.

Analysis: The transaction involved the photographer undertaking to take the photograph, develop the negative, and supply prints after applying skill and labour, with the amount received being a composite sum covering both labour and material. In view of the Supreme Court authority approving the principle that such photographic work is essentially a contract for skill and labour and not for sale of goods, the preparation and supply of photographs could not be treated as a taxable sale under the sales tax law.

Conclusion: The turnover from preparation and supply of photographs was a works contract and not a sale liable to tax.

Ratio Decidendi: A composite contract for photographic services, where the photographer uses skill and labour to produce and supply prints for a lump sum, is not a contract for sale of goods but a works contract.

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