Declared goods classification kept coriander taxable at first purchase despite reliance on an earlier unamended ruling.

Coriander remained taxable at the point of first purchase under item 9 of the Second Schedule because the applicable Central sales tax provision contained an amended, exhaustive list of declared goods that did not include coriander. The earlier Supreme Court decision on coriander under the unamended section 14(vi) did not displace the State entry, since it was based on a different statutory version and did not invalidate the State schedule item. The State levy therefore continued to operate, and the commodity could not be treated as non est or as having revived and vanished under the doctrine of eclipse. The challenge to the levy accordingly failed.

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Issues: Whether coriander was liable to tax at the point of first purchase under item 9 of the Second Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, or whether it had to be treated as a general commodity taxable only at multi-point sales.

Analysis: The relevant statutory scheme levied tax on goods specified in the Second Schedule at the point of purchase mentioned therein, while declared goods received special treatment under the Act and the Central Sales Tax Act. The earlier contention that coriander was an oil-seed and therefore declared goods was not pressed. The remaining question turned on whether the Supreme Court decision concerning coriander under the unamended section 14(vi) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 displaced the State entry. That decision did not positively hold coriander to be an oil-seed for all purposes, and in any event it construed the pre-amendment definition, whereas the assessment year in question was governed by the amended and exhaustive list in section 14(vi), which did not include coriander. The State entry relating to coriander had not been struck down and could not be treated as non est or as having revived and vanished under the doctrine of eclipse.

Conclusion: Coriander was rightly assessed to tax at the point of first purchase under item 9 of the Second Schedule, and the challenge to the levy failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a commodity is expressly included in the State schedule for taxation and is not covered by the governing exhaustive list of declared goods under the applicable Central provision, an earlier decision construing a different statutory version does not nullify the State entry unless that entry has itself been invalidated.

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