Works contract classification for site-based aluminium fabrication overrides sale treatment under later Supreme Court law.

Fabrication, supply and fixing of anodised aluminium doors and windows at the customer's site was treated as a single composite arrangement and therefore constituted a works contract, not a sale of ready-made goods. The earlier view classifying such activity as sale had been displaced by the later Supreme Court ruling, and the authorities were bound by that declaration of law under Article 141 of the Constitution. On that basis, reassessment on the footing of an outright sale and higher-rate tax could not stand, and the impugned reassessment order was set aside.

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Issues: Whether the appellant's activity of fabrication, supplying and fixing aluminium doors and windows at the customer's site constituted a works contract or a sale, and whether the reassessment order based on the earlier view of law could stand after the subsequent Supreme Court ruling.

Analysis: The contract materials showed that the work undertaken was fabrication, supplying and fixing of anodised aluminium sections at site according to customer specifications. The activity was executed as a single composite arrangement at the worksite and was not a mere sale of ready-made goods. The earlier view that treated such activity as sale stood overturned by the Supreme Court in the later decision, and the authorities were bound by that declaration of law under Article 141 of the Constitution of India. In that view, the reassessment treating the transaction as an outright sale and levying tax at the higher rate could not be sustained, and no remand was warranted.

Conclusion: The activity was a works contract and not a sale. The impugned reassessment order was unsustainable and was set aside, with the writ appeal allowed in favour of the assessee.

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