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Issues: (i) Whether the appellant could, in an appeal under Article 136, challenge matters already decided by the High Court on reference under section 25 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1947, without obtaining special leave against the High Court judgment. (ii) Whether Notification No. 5564 Ft. dated 30 March 1949, issued under section 6 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1947, exempted cooked preparations of meat and fish such as meat curry and fish curry served at the appellant's premises or outside.
Issue (i): Whether the appellant could, in an appeal under Article 136, challenge matters already decided by the High Court on reference under section 25 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1947, without obtaining special leave against the High Court judgment.
Analysis: Once the High Court answered the referred questions under section 25, those answers attained finality because no appeal had been preferred against the High Court judgment. The Supreme Court held that the appellant could not bypass the statutory procedure by directly attacking the Board's order on questions already decided against him by the High Court. The Court further held that no ground of natural justice or legal violation was shown to justify direct interference under Article 136.
Conclusion: The challenge to the questions decided by the High Court was not entertainable and was rejected.
Issue (ii): Whether Notification No. 5564 Ft. dated 30 March 1949, issued under section 6 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1947, exempted cooked preparations of meat and fish such as meat curry and fish curry served at the appellant's premises or outside.
Analysis: The notification had to be read in its historical setting and in the light of the earlier exemption notification of 28 August 1947, which specifically exempted meat, fish and cooked food subject to stated exceptions. The omission of cooked food in the 1949 notification showed that the State did not intend to continue exempting cooked food. On that basis, the expressions "meat" and "fish" in the later notification were construed as not extending to cooked meat or cooked fish prepared as dishes or menu items.
Conclusion: Cooked preparations of meat and fish were not covered by the exemption and the claim for tax exemption failed.
Final Conclusion: The appeal failed both on maintainability as to issues already concluded by the High Court and on the substantive construction of the exemption notification, leaving the tax assessment in force.
Ratio Decidendi: A party cannot, in a special leave appeal, circumvent the finality of a High Court decision on a statutory reference, and an exemption notification must be construed in its statutory and historical context so that omitted taxable items are not treated as continuing exemptions by implication.
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