Consignment sales and inter-State movement can be proved by documents despite advance deposits and agent risk clauses.

Documentary evidence can establish that goods moved to another State under a consignment arrangement rather than as local sales, even where advance deposits are taken and the commission agent bears sale-related risk. Consignment agreements, lorry receipts, sale notes, form F, and the agents' books may together prove inter-State movement and sales through commission agents, supporting exemption under section 6A of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. Unsubstantiated transporter statements cannot displace such evidence when not supplied to the assessee and not tested through cross-examination. A belated objection that form F declarations were defective is not ordinarily entertained after significant delay.

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Issues: Whether the goods were transferred under consignment arrangements or were local sales, and whether the assessee established inter-State movement and exemption under section 6A of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.

Analysis: The assessee produced consignment agreements, lorry receipts, sale notes, forms F, and evidence showing that the commission agents received the goods for sale outside the State. The Tribunal accepted that the advance deposits and risk clauses did not convert the relationship into principal-to-principal sales, and that the books of the commission agents reflected consignment stock and sales effected in the destination territory. The Court further held that the revenue's reliance on a few transporter statements could not displace the documentary evidence, especially when those statements were not supplied to the assessee and no opportunity of cross-examination was afforded. The Court also held that the objection that the forms F were defective could not be raised belatedly after many years.

Conclusion: The transactions were held to be consignment sales involving inter-State movement of goods, the assessee had discharged the burden under section 6A, and the sales were not liable to local tax.

Final Conclusion: The Tribunal's view was upheld and the tax appeals failed, as the disputed transactions were not local sales but inter-State transactions covered by the Central Sales Tax regime.

Ratio Decidendi: Where documentary evidence establishes that goods were moved to another State for sale through commission agents, a consignment arrangement does not become a local sale merely because advance deposits are taken or the agent bears sale-related risk, and the revenue cannot rebut such evidence by untested statements obtained behind the assessee's back.

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