Retrospective sales tax levy upheld where textiles were not yet declared goods during the taxable period.

The State Legislature could validly validate and apply retrospectively the amended sales tax provision to textile turnover for a past period when textiles were not yet declared goods. Section 15 of the Central Sales Tax Act did not bar the levy because the relevant assessment period predated the goods acquiring declared-goods status, and no constitutional or statutory restriction then operated. The later change in the legal character of textiles did not undo the competence to enact a retrospective measure for that earlier period, since the legal fiction operated only on a time when the tax could lawfully have been imposed. The challenge failed and the assessee obtained no relief.

---

---

Issues: Whether the Mysore Legislature was competent to validate and apply retrospectively the amended sales tax provision so as to levy tax on textile turnover relating to the period before textiles became declared goods, notwithstanding the restriction under section 15 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.

Analysis: The levy was upheld on the footing that, during the relevant assessment period, textiles were not declared goods and the State Legislature had full power to tax their turnover at the rates prescribed by the State enactment. The subsequent change in legal character of textiles as declared goods did not destroy the competence to enact a retrospective measure covering an earlier period when no constitutional or statutory restriction operated. The legal fiction created by the amending Act was within legislative power because it operated only on a past period during which the tax could validly have been imposed.

Conclusion: The challenge to the retrospective levy failed and the amended provision was held valid; the appeals were dismissed against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The State's retrospective levy on pre-declared-goods textile sales was sustained, and the assessee obtained no relief.

Ratio Decidendi: A legislature may validly enact a retrospective sales tax law for a past period when the goods were not subject to the later-acquired restriction applicable to declared goods, and the subsequent change in legal character does not render the earlier retrospective levy incompetent.

---