Charitable sales of publications are not business when they merely advance the institution's main religious object.

A charitable or religious trust does not become a dealer merely because it sells publications, photographs, stickers and allied literature connected with its main object. Under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, liability attached only if the activity amounted to business in the ordinary commercial sense, and the expanded definition of business did not remove that requirement. The trust's sales were only a means to advance its religious object, not a commercial venture, so the activity did not constitute business and the turnover was not liable to sales tax.

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Issues: Whether the trust's publication and sale of books, booklets, photographs, stickers and allied literature at nominal price constituted "business" so as to make it a "dealer" liable to sales tax under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: The charging provision fastened liability only on a dealer, and the definition of dealer required a person to carry on the business of buying or selling goods. The enlarged definition of business, though widening the concept and dispensing with profit motive, did not eliminate the requirement that the activity must still be business in its ordinary commercial sense. Incidental or ancillary transactions can be treated as business only where they are attached to an underlying trade, commerce or manufacture. The trust's main object was to spread the message of Saibaba of Shirdi, and the publication and sale of literature was merely a means to advance that charitable object. The activity was not undertaken as a commercial venture and did not acquire the character of business merely because publications were sold for a nominal charge.

Conclusion: The trust was not a dealer in respect of the said activity, and the turnover from such sales was not liable to sales tax.

Ratio Decidendi: A charitable or religious institution is not a dealer merely because it sells publications or other articles connected with its main object; incidental or ancillary sales are taxable only when they are attached to an underlying activity that is itself business in the commercial sense.

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