Written contract controls tax exemption classification where supply may be meat or live animals; assessment based on opinion fails.

For sales tax exemption under section 7 read with item 11 of Schedule III, the decisive question was whether the supply was of meat or live animals, and that depended on the true construction of the written contract where one existed. Oral statements and the buyer's opinion were not determinative when the contract was available. Because the taxing authority failed to examine the contract and relied on an extraneous basis, the assessment was unsustainable. The proper enquiry was whether the price was fixed by meat content or on a per-animal basis, and the matter was remitted for fresh disposal on proper examination of the agreement and exemption entry.

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Issues: Whether the nature of the goods sold for the purpose of sales tax exemption was to be determined from the written contract between the parties, and whether the assessment could stand when the taxing authority relied on the buyer's opinion instead of examining the contract.

Analysis: The exemption under section 7 read with item 11 of Schedule III depended on whether the goods supplied were meat or live animals. Where a written contract exists, the decisive factor is the true construction of its terms, because those terms reveal the nature and character of the goods sold. Oral statements or the buyer's opinion are not determinative when the contract itself is available. The authority below failed to examine the contract and proceeded on an extraneous basis, which meant that the decision was not a real adjudication of the issue. The proper enquiry was whether the price was fixed on the meat content of the animal or on a per-animal basis, and then whether the supply fell within the exempted item.

Conclusion: The assessment could not be sustained on the basis adopted by the authority, and the matter had to be reconsidered on the basis of the written contract; the finding was in favour of the petitioner.

Final Conclusion: The impugned orders were quashed and the matter was sent back for fresh disposal according to law on proper examination of the contract and the relevant exemption entry.

Ratio Decidendi: When the classification of goods for tax exemption turns on the nature of supply under a written agreement, the contract itself is the controlling material, and an assessment based on extraneous opinion without construing the contract is unsustainable.

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