1984 (4) TMI 261

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.... hotels and restaurants are exempt from sales tax; but the articles of cooked food sold by the petitioners are not so exempt, it is complained. The scheme of exemption in item 12 is attacked as violative of the petitioners' fundamental rights under articles 14 and 19(1)(g). It is also their case that the policy of the State is to exempt cooked food from tax so as to make them available at cheap rates to the consumers, and that item 12 falls short of this policy. The Bakery Owners' Association has requested the Government to amend the law, and the Government is bound to do so in the interests of equality and fairness, it is asserted. 2.. Section 9 of the Act reads: "Exemption from tax.-Subject to such restrictions and conditions as may be ....

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....eaning of item 12 in the Third Schedule. That is a slender assumption in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in Annapurna Biscuit Manufacturing Co. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1981] 48 STC 254 (SC). The question there was whether biscuits could be treated as cooked food for the purpose of a notification issued under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, and their Lordships said: "It may be that biscuit is served at tea time and in its wider meaning 'cooked food' may include biscuit. But ordinarily biscuit is not understood as cooked food. If a person goes to a hotel or restaurant and ask for some cooked food or pakaya hua bhojan certainly he will not be served with biscuits in Uttar Pradesh. While it is not necessary to state in the present case....

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....e purchasers get their requirements for leisurely consumption at home or elsewhere, they will have to pay tax even if they get their supplies from a hotel or a restaurant. In the case of undertaking marriage parties also, there is no distinction under item 12 between a bakery owner and another. If the supply at the marriage party amounts to "serving", the exemption is available to everyone who does so . 6.. Counsel would submit that even in the case of out and out sale, as distinct from service, owners of restaurants and hotels are not charging tax and are thus able to undercut bakery owners. That is a matter pertaining to the enforcement of the law, and not to its validity. May be, even bakery owners are sometimes able to evade the law. ....