Transfer of the right to use goods includes lease arrangements; constitutional challenge to sales tax provisions failed.

Article 366(29A)(d) was treated as clear and unambiguous in covering transfers of the right to use goods, including lease arrangements, whether or not for a specified period. The temporary nature of the arrangement and the obligation to return the goods did not take the transaction outside the constitutional entry. On that basis, the challenge to section 5-E and the allied definitions in the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 failed because the amended charging and definitional provisions were not shown to be constitutionally infirm.

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Issues: Whether article 366(29A)(d) of the Constitution of India and section 5-E and allied definitions of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 were unconstitutional as applied to lease transactions involving the transfer of the right to use goods.

Analysis: The constitutional amendment inserting clause (29A) had already been upheld, and the decisive question was whether the petitioners' leasing arrangements fell within the expression "transfer of the right to use any goods". The language of article 366(29A)(d) was held to be clear and unambiguous and to include such transfers whether or not for a specified period. The temporary nature of the arrangement and the obligation to return the goods did not take the transaction outside the constitutional entry. On that basis, the amended charging provision and related definitional amendments under the State Act were not shown to suffer from any constitutional infirmity.

Conclusion: The challenge to the validity of the impugned constitutional and statutory provisions failed, and the writ petitions were dismissed.

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