Inter-State sale test depends on movement of goods, not merely an outside-State address on the invoice.

A sale is not treated as inter-State merely because the purchaser's outside-State address appears on the invoice. The decisive test under the Central Sales Tax Act is whether the sale itself occasioned movement of goods from one State to another, or involved transfer of title during such movement. A sale is otherwise an intra-State transaction if the goods were within the State when the contract was made, subject to section 3. An order based only on invoice details, without findings on delivery, movement of goods, or supporting evidence, cannot stand and requires fresh examination on the record.

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Issues: Whether sales could be treated as inter-State sales merely because the purchasers' addresses outside the State were shown in the sale invoices, and whether the revisional order could stand without examining the place of delivery and the material evidence on record.

Analysis: Section 3 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 treats a sale as inter-State only where the sale occasions movement of goods from one State to another, or is effected by transfer of documents of title during such movement. Section 4 provides that a sale is inside a State if the goods are within the State at the time the contract is made, subject to section 3. The revisional authority relied mainly on the fact that the bills were in the names of buyers situated outside Haryana, without recording any finding that delivery took place outside the State or that the movement of goods was pursuant to the contract of sale. Mere mention of an -State address in the invoice was not conclusive to hold the transactions as inter-State sales. The matter therefore required fresh examination on evidence, with opportunity to the assessee to lead evidence.

Conclusion: The finding treating the sales as inter-State sales could not be sustained on the existing material, and the matter was remitted for fresh decision.

Ratio Decidendi: A sale cannot be treated as inter-State merely because the purchaser's outside-State address appears on the invoice; the decisive question is whether the sale itself occasioned movement of goods from one State to another.

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