Inter-State sale requires movement under the sale contract; later buyer transport does not change a local auction sale.

An auction sale is an inter-State sale under the Central Sales Tax Act only if movement of goods to another State is an incident of the sale itself and is required by the contract, expressly or by implication. Where the tender conditions provided for local delivery in Kerala on payment of price and taxes, and the buyer later chose to transport the goods outside the State, the subsequent movement did not convert the auction into an inter-State sale. The transactions were therefore treated as local sales taxable under the KGST Act, and the assessment approach was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the auction sale of sandalwood conducted by the Forest Department in Kerala constituted an inter-State sale falling under Section 3(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act or a local sale taxable under the KGST Act.

Analysis: For a sale to be treated as an inter-State sale, the sale itself must occasion movement of goods from one State to another, and the movement must be a result of, or be implicit in, the contract of sale. The tender conditions here provided only for auction sale, local delivery in Kerala on payment of the price and applicable taxes, and delivery at the buyers' risk and cost. There was no express or implied term requiring movement of the goods outside Kerala. The fact that some buyers were registered outside Kerala and later chose to transport the goods to other States did not make the auction sale itself an inter-State sale, because such movement was a separate and subsequent act unconnected with the sale transaction.

Conclusion: The auction sales were local sales taxable under the KGST Act and not inter-State sales under the Central Sales Tax Act; the challenge to the assessment failed.

Final Conclusion: The statutory adjudication treating the transactions as local sales was upheld, and the writ petitions were dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A sale is an inter-State sale only when the movement of goods to another State is an incident of the sale itself and not merely a later choice of the purchaser after completion of the sale.

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