Retrospective amendment and tribunal jurisdiction: amended sales tax levy applies, and vires of notifications cannot be examined by tribunal.

A retrospective amendment to section 9 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 was treated as governing liability on a subsequent inter-State sale where the prescribed C form had not actually been issued but could have been obtained. The amendment removed the earlier lacuna, so the levy question was answered against the assessee. On the second issue, a statutory sales tax tribunal lacked jurisdiction to examine the constitutional validity of the Act, the rules, or a notification issued under section 8(5); it could not declare the notification discriminatory or void. The reference questions were therefore answered in favour of the Revenue.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether, after the retrospective amendment to section 9 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, the State could levy tax on a subsequent inter-State sale where the prescribed C form had not actually been issued in connection with the purchase of the goods. (ii) Whether the Tribunal could examine and hold discriminatory and void a notification issued under section 8(5) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.

Issue (i): The retrospective amendment to section 9 removed the earlier lacuna by extending the levy to cases where the prescribed form could have been obtained. The controversy on the first question therefore ceased to have practical significance, and the amended provision governed the liability to tax on the subsequent sale.

Conclusion: The question was answered in favour of the Revenue and against the assessee.

Issue (ii): A statutory authority constituted under the sales tax law has no jurisdiction to pronounce upon the validity or vires of the Act, the rules, or a notification issued thereunder. The Tribunal therefore could not go into the constitutional validity of the notification or declare it discriminatory and void.

Conclusion: The question was answered in favour of the Revenue and against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: Both reference questions were answered against the assessee, and the Tribunal's contrary view was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: A retrospective statutory amendment can govern the levy on a pending reference, and a statutory tax authority cannot adjudicate the vires of the parent Act, rules, or notifications issued under it.

---