1979 (3) TMI 175

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....as a distillery and brewery at Jammu. It maintains wholesale depots at various places in the State of Punjab, the main depot being at Ludhiana. As a whole-seller it supplied Indian-made foreign liquor to permit-holders on the permits issued by the respective Excise and Taxation Officers, the competent authorities under the Punjab Excise Act and the Rules framed thereunder. Sales tax under the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, was imposed in respect of the sales aforesaid by an order of assessment dated 30th November, 1972. The respondent, thereupon, filed a writ petition in the High Court for the quashing of the said order and to restrain the appellants from recovering the amount of Rs. 46,396.22 from the petitioner. The main ground of....

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....uashed the assessment order. A Letters Patent appeal from the said order was dismissed in limine. Hence this appeal. This case, in our opinion, is squarely covered by a recent decision of this Court delivered by a Bench of seven Judges in Vishnu Agencies (Pvt.) Ltd. v. Commercial Tax Officer [1978] 42 S.T.C. 31 (S.C.); [1978] 2 S.C.R. 433; A.I.R. 1978 S.C. 449. The High Court in the case of Jagatjit Distilling and Allied Industries Ltd. [1971] 28 S.T.C. 709., had mainly relied upon two decisions of this Court to hold that the transactions in that case were not sales. The said decisions are New India Sugar Mills Ltd. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, Bihar  [1963] 14 S.T.C. 316 (S.C.); [1963] Supp. 2 S.C.R. 459., and Chittar Mal Narai....

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....examined the various relevant provisions of the Punjab Excise Act and the Rules framed thereunder. We find that an area of agreement sufficient enough for the parties to cover by their volition to bring the transactions in question within the ambit of sales was left in the field. Broadly speaking, the stand taken on behalf of the appellants in their counter was correct, except that in regard to the fixation of price we assume in favour of the respondent-company that the price had been fixed, as usually it is so in the excise trade. Even so the decision of this Court in Vishnu Agencies [1978] 42 S.T.C. 31 (S.C.); [1978] 2 S.C.R. 433; A.I.R. 1978 S.C. 449., and the various other previous decisions reviewed therein justifies in law the imposit....