Ordinary meaning of salt controls exemption, and a notification cannot tax kala namak contrary to the statute.

Where a challenge is directed to the validity of a taxing notification, the availability of appellate or revisional remedies does not bar a writ petition if those authorities lack power to test the notification's validity. In construing the sales-tax exemption for salt under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, the Court applied the ordinary and common-parlance meaning of "salt", not a narrow chemical definition, and treated kala namak as an edible species of salt. It further held that a subordinate notification could not override the statutory exemption, so the levy was invalid to that extent and tax recovery on kala namak sales was restrained.

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Issues: (i) Whether the petitions were barred by the availability of alternative statutory remedies despite the challenge to the validity of the notification. (ii) Whether kala namak is a species of edible salt exempt from sales tax under section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, and whether the notification levying tax on it was ultra vires to that extent.

Issue (i): Whether the petitions were barred by the availability of alternative statutory remedies despite the challenge to the validity of the notification.

Analysis: The challenge was directed against the validity of the Government notification issued under the Act. The appellate and revisional authorities under the Act had no power to decide the validity of such a notification. The existence of an alternative remedy therefore did not bar the writ petitions.

Conclusion: The preliminary objection based on alternative remedy was rejected.

Issue (ii): Whether kala namak is a species of edible salt exempt from sales tax under section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, and whether the notification levying tax on it was ultra vires to that extent.

Analysis: The word "salt" was not defined in the Act and had to be understood in its ordinary meaning. In common parlance, salt meant an article used for edible purposes, and not merely pure sodium chloride in its chemical sense. The material before the Court showed that kala namak was principally sodium chloride and was used for edible purposes. The fact that it might also be used as a spice or digestive did not take it outside the ordinary understanding of salt. A subordinate notification could not override the statutory exemption granted by section 4, and the explanation to that provision did not indicate any legislative intention to exclude kala namak.

Conclusion: Kala namak was held to be a species of edible salt within the exemption, and the notification was invalid to the extent it sought to tax it.

Final Conclusion: The assessment orders levying sales tax on kala namak were quashed and recovery of tax on its sales was restrained.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of a statutory definition, a tax exemption entry for salt is to be construed according to its ordinary and common parlance meaning, and a subordinate notification cannot curtail that exemption by treating an edible species of salt as taxable.

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