Pre-commencement restaurant supply exemption overrides validation for taxed food sales before 2 February 1983.

Section 6(2) of the Constitution (Forty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1982 is described as overriding the validation clause in section 6(1) for supplies of food, snacks and beverages by restaurants, canteens and eating houses made for consumption therein before 2 February 1983, where tax had not been collected on the footing that no such levy then applied. The provision is said to govern only that confined pre-commencement class of transactions, making it unnecessary to consider the wider reach of the validation clause where the exemption does not apply. On that construction, the disputed supplies fall within the exemption and the challenge to the Tribunal's view fails.

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Issues: Whether sales of food, snacks and beverages by restaurants, canteens and eating houses for consumption therein, made prior to 2 February 1983, were exempt from tax under section 6(2) of the Constitution (Forty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1982, and whether the revisions challenging the Tribunal's view should succeed.

Analysis: Section 6(2) of the Constitution (Forty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1982 operates notwithstanding the validation clause in section 6(1) and grants exemption where the supply was made by a restaurant or eating house during the specified pre-commencement period and tax had not been collected on the supply on the footing that no such tax could then be levied. The controversy before the Court was confined to supplies by restaurants, canteens and eating houses before 2 February 1983. On that footing, the exemption provision directly governed the disputed transactions, and it was unnecessary to decide the broader question of the scope of the validation clause in section 6(1) for cases where the exemption is unavailable.

Conclusion: The disputed transactions were covered by the exemption in section 6(2), and the revisions failed.

Final Conclusion: The tax liability of restaurant-related supplies for the relevant pre-2 February 1983 period was to be determined in accordance with the exemption provision, and the Tribunal's result was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a constitutional amendment provides a specific exemption overriding validation, supplies falling within the exempted class and period cannot be taxed if the statutory conditions for exemption are satisfied.

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