Inter-State sale classification requires statutory scrutiny of transaction circumstances, not reliance on a road permit alone.

Inter-State sale under Section 3 of the Central Sales Tax Act must be determined from the real nature of the transaction and the legally relevant attendant circumstances, not from a road permit alone. The court noted that the State's clarification required examination of prescribed factors and that the assessment and revisional orders did not show any such enquiry before treating the sales as inter-State merely because of blue Form XXVIII-B permits. The assessment and Tribunal orders were set aside, and the matter was remanded for fresh determination of tax liability on the statutory criteria, with consequential relief including refund and statutory interest if the transactions are ultimately found not to be inter-State sales.

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Issues: Whether the impugned assessment and revisional orders could be sustained when the transactions were treated as inter-State sales merely on the basis of blue coloured Form XXVIII-B road permits, and whether the matter required fresh determination on the statutory criteria for inter-State sale.

Analysis: The dispute turned on the application of the legal test under Section 3 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, which requires the sale or purchase to occasion movement of goods from one State to another. The Court noted that the State itself had issued a clarification after the earlier precedent, prescribing different colours of Form XXVIII-B and stating that inter-State character could not be assumed merely from invoices, cash memos, or the issue of road permits, but had to be tested on the four stated points. The assessment order and the Tribunal's order did not show that those factors were examined before concluding that the sales were inter-State. On that basis, the finding that the road permit alone was decisive could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The assessment order and the Tribunal's order were set aside, and the matter was remanded to the Assessing Authority for fresh consideration of the tax liability on the prescribed criteria. The petitioner obtained consequential relief, including refund with statutory interest if the transactions are found not to be inter-State sales on remand.

Ratio Decidendi: Form XXVIII-B or a road permit by itself is not a ative test for inter-State sale; the statutory character of the transaction must be determined on the real nature of the sale and the legally relevant attendant circumstances.

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