Transferable trade licences remain goods: REP licences and DEPB credits stay taxable as marketable commodities.

Sunrise Associates, confined to lottery tickets, did not impliedly overrule Vikas Sales Corporation, which remained good law on REP licences because it rested on their intrinsic value, free transferability and commercial treatment as merchandise. On the same reasoning, DEPB credits shared the same characteristics, so they were not mere actionable claims or rights to sue but movable property within the sales tax definition of goods. Accordingly, transfers of REP licences and DEPB credits were exigible to sales tax under the materially similar statutory definitions considered in the Delhi, Kerala and Bombay enactments.

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Issues: (i) whether the decision in Vikas Sales Corporation remained good law after Sunrise Associates and whether Sunrise impliedly overruled it; (ii) whether Duty Entitlement Pass Book credits and REP licences are goods exigible to sales tax.

Issue (i): whether the decision in Vikas Sales Corporation remained good law after Sunrise Associates and whether Sunrise impliedly overruled it.

Analysis: The Constitution Bench in Sunrise was confined to lottery tickets and expressly declined to decide the status of REP licences or DEPB. Its discussion of actionable claims and transferability did not disturb the independent reasoning in Vikas that REP licences possessed intrinsic value, were freely bought and sold, and were treated in commerce as merchandise. The distinction drawn in Sunrise between lottery tickets and actionable claims did not displace the earlier holding on REP licences.

Conclusion: The decision in Vikas Sales Corporation was not impliedly overruled and continued to hold the field in relation to REP licences.

Issue (ii): whether Duty Entitlement Pass Book credits and REP licences are goods exigible to sales tax.

Analysis: DEPB was found to share the material features of REP licences: it conferred an intrinsic monetary value, was freely transferable, and was bought and sold as a marketable commodity. On that footing, it was not a mere actionable claim or a bare right to sue, but movable property falling within the sales tax definition of goods. The statutory definitions under the Delhi, Kerala and Bombay enactments were materially similar to those considered earlier, so the same legal position applied.

Conclusion: DEPB credits and REP licences were held to be goods and their transfer was exigible to sales tax.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed because Sunrise did not unsettle the taxability of REP licences, and DEPB was treated as a taxable marketable commodity under the relevant sales tax laws.

Ratio Decidendi: A freely transferable instrument having intrinsic value and traded as a market commodity is goods for sales tax purposes, and a later decision confined to a different kind of instrument does not impliedly overrule that position unless it squarely addresses and negates the earlier holding.

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