l Appeals Nos
280 and 281 of 1960
Appeal from the judgment and order dated April 20 1956 of the Madras High Court in T R C Nos 101 and 102 of 1956
B Ganapathy Iyer and G Gopalakrishnan for the appellant
M M Ismail and T M Sen for the respondent
572 D V Sastri and T M Sen for Intervener No 1
Naunit Lal for Intervener No 2
section M Sikri Advocate General Punjab and D Gupta for Intervener No 3
section M Sikri Advocate General Punjab N section Bindra and D Gupta for Intervener No 4
G C Kasliwal Advocate General Rajasthan section K Kapur and D Gupta for Intervener No 5 1961
April 28
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by section K DAS J
These are two appeals on certificates granted by the High Court of Madras and consolidated by its orders dated March 22 1957
They are from the judgment and orders of the said High Court dated April 20 1956 and July 30 1956 in two Tax Revision Cases by which the High Court dismissed two petitions filed by the appellants under section 12 B of the Madras General Sales Tax Act Madras Act IX of 1939 hereinafter called the principal Act in the fol lowing circumstances
Messrs George Oakes Private Limited appellants herein are dealers in Ford motor cars spare parts and accessories
For the two years 1951 52 and 1952 53 the appellants submitted their returns under the relevant provisions of the principal Act and claimed exemption from tax with regard to certain amount realised on transactions of sales which the appellants contended were inter State sales and hence exempt from tax under article 286 of the Constitution as it stood at the relevant time
The Deputy Commercial Tax Officer Madras not only rejected the claim of exemption but added to the turnover certain amounts which the appellants had collected by way of tax
The amounts so added for 1951 52 were a Rs 8000 to the net turnover assessable at 3 pies per rupee and b Rs 430000 to the turnover assessable at 9 pies per rupee
For 1952 53 the amounts so added were a Rs 30132 odd and b Rs 292257 odd res pectively
Aggrieved by the orders of the Deputy Commercial 573 Tax Officer the appellants preferred two appeals to the Special Commercial Tax Officer Appeals Madras City
These appeals were dismissed
The matter was then taken to the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal by means of two appeals
By this time the Madras Legislature had passed the Madras General Sales Definition of Turnover and Validation of Assessments Act 1954 being Madras Act No XVII of 1954
This Act we shall refer to as the impugned Act in this judgment because its constitutional validity is now the only question for decision in these appeals
The Tribunal negatived the claim of the appellants arising out of the contention that some of the sale transactions in the relevant years were in effect interState sales and therefore exempt from tax the tribunal declined to go into the second question of the constitutional validity of the impugned Act
We may state here though nothing now turns upon this that the Tribunal held that when sales tax was included in the turnover it was proper to tax the amounts so included at the minimum rate only viz 3 pies in the rupee under section 31 of the principal Act
Thereafter the appellants filed two revision petitions to the High Court under section 12 B of the principal Act
These were dismissed in limine
By the orders dated April 20 1956 the High Court held that the contention as to some of the transactions being inter State sales was concluded by one of its earlier decisions which came before us in Ashok Leyland Ltd vs The State of Madras Civil Appeal No 446 of 1958
In that appeal we delivered judgment on March 28 1961 and held that the Sales Tax Laws Validation Act 1956 applied and it was unnecessary to consider the true nature of the transactions which the appellants contended were inter State sales
Learned Counsel for the appellants has conceded before us that decision governs the present appeals and the first question no longer survives
As to the second question the High Court by oversight did not deal with it in its orders dated April 20 1956
When the matter was brought to the notice of 73 574 the High Court it said in its orders dated July 30 1956 that the second question was also concluded by its decision in Sri Sundararajan and Co Ltd vs The State of Madras  where the validity of the impugned Act was upheld
When we heard these appeals along with Ashok Leyland Ltd vs The State of Madras Civil Appeal No 446 of 1958 we expressed the view that there was some divergence of opinion in the High Courts on the second question and the substantial point for consideration before us was whether the impugned Act was validly made under entry 54 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution thus the question raised was one of legislative competence and affected all the States
The State of Madras was already a party respondent to these appeals
Accordingly we directed the issue of notices to the Advocates General of all other States also
In pursuance of the said notices the Advocates General of Andhra Pradesh Assam West Bengal Gujarat Maharashtra Punjab and Rajasthan have appeared before us
They have unanimously supported the State of Madras in its submission that the impugned Act is valid some of them have added supplementary arguments in support of that submission
For convenience and brevity we shall refer in this judgment to the main arguments as representing two differing points of view firstly there is the argument on behalf of the appellants that the several provisions of the principal Act as also section 2 of the impugned Act make a distinction between the sale price of goods sold and the amount collected by way of tax and in view of that distinction made What the impugned Act seeks to impose is a tax on Sales tax  a subject which does not come within the ambit of entry 54 of List II which at the relevant time read as Taxes on the sale or purchase of goods other than newspapers
 On the other side the argument is that what the impugned Act seeks to do is to enlarge the scope of the definition of turnover  so as to include the amount collected by way of tax in the turnover by a deeming 1 1956 7 STC 105
575 provision and this the State Legislature was competent to enact under entry 54 of the State List
These are the main arguments on two sides but there are several subsidiary points in support of the main argument on each side and it would be an over simplification to ignore these altogether
We shall therefore consider them also when dealing with the main argument on each side
We shall first refer to the relevant provisions of the principal Act and of the impugned Act in so far as they bear on the points debated before us
Under section 3 of the principal Act which is the charging section every dealer is liable to pay subject to the provisions of the Act for each year a tax on his total turnover for that year calculated at a particular percentage of such turnover
What is turnover  is defined in section 2i
The definition substantially states  turnover  means the aggregate amount for which goods are either bought or sold by a dealer whether for cash or for deferred payment or other valuable consideration  Sale  is defined in section 2h and means we are reading so much of the definition only as is material for our purpose every transfer of property in goods by one person to another in the course of trade or business for cash or deferred payment or other valuable consideration
 It is worthy of note here that the tax imposed by the principal Act is a tax on total turnover and turnover means the aggregate amount for which goods are either bought or sold by a dealer
Therefore one of the questions which fall for consideration is whether the State Legislature went beyond its legislative competence in enacting by the impugned Act that the amounts collected by the dealer by way of tax shall be deemed to have formed part of his turnover
This brings us to section 8B of the principal Act which provides in sub section
1 that no person who is not a registered dealer shall collect any amount by way of tax nor shall a registered dealer make any such collection except in accordance with such conditions and restrictions if any as may be prescribed sub section
2 provides inter alia that every person who has collected or collects by way of tax any amounts shall pay 576 over the same to the State Government
Section 15 provides for penalties for a contravention of some of the provisions of the principal Act including the provisions of section 8B
In The Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes Coimbatore Division vs M Krighnaswami Mudaliar  Sons 1 the Madras High Court held that the amount collected by a registered dealer from the consumer by way of sales tax and paid over to Government should not be included in the turnover of the registered dealer as part of the sale price of the goods sold and it was not liable to be taxed again
This decision was given on January 7 1954
In July 1954 was enacted the impugned Act sections 2 and 3 whereof need only be set out here
section 2
Sales Tax Collections by dealers to be deemed part of turnover
In the case of sales made by a dealer before the 1st April 1954 amounts collected by him by way of tax under the Madras General Sales Tax Act 1939 Madras Act IX of 1939 hereinafter referred to as the principal Act shall be deemed to have formed part of his turnover
Validation of certain assessment and collections 1 All assessments and collections made all orders passed all actions taken by any officer in the exercise or purported exercise of jurisdiction or power conferred by the principal Act and all judgments decrees or orders pronounced by any Tribunal or Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction or powers with respect to matters in the principal Act on the basis that amounts collected by a dealer by way of tax under the principal Act before the 1st April 1954 formed part of the turnover of the dealer are hereby declared to have been validly made passed taken or pronounced as the case may be and any finding recorded by any officer Tribunal or Court to a contrary effect and any order judgment or decree in so far as such order judgment or decree embodied or is based on any such finding and does not relate merely to the costs of the proceeding which result in the judgment decree or order shall be void and of no effect 2 1954 5 STC 88
577 Provided that no act or omission on the part of any person shall be punishable as an offence which would not have been so punishable if this Act had not been passed
2 Nothing in sub section 1 shall be construed as authorising any officer in assessing any dealer in s the exercise or purported exercise of jurisdiction or powers conferred by the principal Act to include in the turnover of the dealer amounts collected by him after the 1st April 1954 by way of tax under the principal Act
 The validity of the impugned Act was then questioned in the Madras High Court and in Sri Sundararajan and Co Ltd vs The State of Madras 1 it was held that the impugned Act was valid
The High Court pointed out that the earlier decision in Krishnaswami Mudaliar s case 2 was not that the State Legislature could not make the amounts collected by a registered dealer by way of tax under section 8B part of the assessable turnover but that the principal Act as it stood at the relevant time did not make such amounts part of the assessable turnover
It held that in pith and substance the impugned Act validated the assessments already made before April 1 1954 and that even where the registered dealer collected any amount by way of tax under the authority of section 8B the payment by the purchaser was on the occasion of the sale by the dealer and vis a vis the latter it was in reality part of the price the purchaser paid the seller for purchasing the goods
The same view was also expressed by the Patna High Court in Ashoka Marketing Company Ltd vs The State of Bihar 3 with regard to the Bihar Sales Tax Definition of Turnover and Validation of Assessments Act 1958
The question before us is whether the aforesaid view is correct
The relevant legislative entry as we have said earlier is entry 54 of List II Taxes on the sale or purchase of goods other than newspapers
 A similar entry No 48 in List 11 of Schedule VII to the Government of India Act 1935 read as Taxes on the 1 1956 7 STC 105
2 1954 5 STC 88
3 1959 10 STC 110 578 sale of goods The true scope and effect of that entry was considered by this Court in the State of Madras vs Gannon Dunkerley and Co Madras Ltd 1 and on a review of several decisions bearing on the subject it held that the expression sale of goods was a term of well recognised legal import in the general law relating to sale of goods and in the legislative practice relating to that topic and must be interpreted as having the same meaning as in the  in other words it was held that sales contemplated by entry 48 of the Government of India Act 1935 were transactions in which title to the goods passed from the seller to the buyer and in The Sales Tax Officer Pilibhit vs Messrs Budh Prakash Jai Prakash 2 it was held that a mere executory agreement was not a sale within the meaning of that entry
We think that the same meaning must be given to entry 54 of List 11 of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution
The question before us is that giving that meaning to the entry is the impugned Act a valid piece of legislation by a competent Legislature Now learned Counsel for the appellants has not raised before us the extreme contention that in no case could the State Legislature validly make a law which would include the amount collected by way of tax as part of the turnover of the dealer
He has submitted that it is unnecessary for him in this case to press into service any such wide proposition
His argument is that the principal Act by sections 8B and 15 and the impugned Act by section 2 thereof having made a distinction between what he calls the sale price and what is collected by way of tax by the dealer the question of the validity of the impugned Act must be determined on the basis of that distinction and so determined what the impugned Act does is to impose what learned Counsel calls a tax on tax and therefore not covered by the relevant legislative entry
His submission further is that what is collected by way of tax being distinct from sale price and therefore from turnover it must be necessarily held that the amount collected by way of tax is not essentially 1  2  579 connected with the transaction of sale and therefore the imposition of a tax on tax has no necessary connexion with the transaction of sale as understood in the general law relating to sale of goods
We are unable to accept this argument as correct
First of all we do not think that either the principal Act or the impugned Act proceedson any immutable distinction between sale price and tax such as learned Counsel for the appellants has suggested
The principal Act does not contain any separate definition of sale price
We have already referred to the definitions of sale  and turnover  those definitions do not show any such distinction
On the contrary the expression turnover  means the aggregate amount for which goods are bought or sold whether for cash or for deferred payment or other valuable consideration and when a sale attracts purchase tax and the tax is passed on to the consumer what the buyer has to pay for the goods includes the tax as well and the aggregate amount so paid would fall within the definition of turnover
In Paprika Ltd and Another vs Board of Trade 1 Lawrence J said Whenever a sale attracts purchase tax that tax presumably affects the price which the seller who is liable to pay the tax demands but it does not cease to be the price which the buyer has to pay even if the price is expressed as x plus purchase tax The same view was again expressed in Love vs Norman Wright Builders Ltd 2 when Goddard L J said Where an article is taxed whether by purchase tax customs duty or excise duty the tax becomes part of the price which ordinarily the buyer will have to pay
The price of an ounce of tobacco is what it is because of the rate of tax but on a sale there is only one consideration though made up of cost plus profit plus tax
So if a seller offers goods for sale it is for him to quote a price which includes the tax if he desires to pass it on to the buyer
If the buyer agrees to the price it is not for him to consider how it is made up or whether the seller has included tax or not
 1 2 580 We think that these observations are apposite even in the context of the provisions of the Acts we are considering now and there is nothing in those provisions which would indicate that when the dealer Collects any amount by way of tax that cannot be part of the sale price
So far as the purchaser is concerned he pays for the goods what the seller demands viz price even though it may include tax
That is the whole consideration for the sale and there is no reason why the whole amount paid to the seller by the purchaser should not be treated as the consideration for the sale and included in the turnover
But argues learned Counsel for the appellants section 8 B of the principal Act and Turnover and Assessment Rules made under section 19 show that under the scheme of the principal Act a distinction is drawn between the amount collected by way of tax and the amount of purchase price
It is indeed true that in section 8 B the amount collected by way of tax is separa tely mentioned and while sub section
1 thereof is merely enabling in the sense that a registered dealer may pass on the tax sub section
2 imposes an obligation on the registered dealer to pay over the amount of tax collected by him to Government
The position under the Turnover and Assessment Rules is correctly summarised in the following extract from the judgment in Krishnaswamy Mudaliar s case 1 Rule 4 provides that the gross turnover of a dealer for the purposes of the rules is the amount for which goods are sold by the dealer
Provision is made in rule 5 for certain deductions and the mode or manner in which the tax to be levied has to be arrived at
The object of these rules is to assess
 the net turnover on which the tax is to be levied under the charging section
It is therefore clear that under the charging section tax is to be paid on the turnover which is assessed according to the rules
Rule 11 requires that every dealer should submit a return under rule 6 every year to the assessing authority in Form A in which he has to show the actual gross and net turnover for the preceding 1 1954 5 STC 88
581 year and the amounts by way of tax or taxes actually collected during that year
In Form A columns 1 to 10 relate to the gross turnover and the deductions to be made from the gross turnover column 10 requires the net turnover liable to tax to be shown
In column 11 the amount actually collected by way of tax or taxes under section 8 B has to be shown
 The question however still remains do the aforesaid provisions show such a distinction under the scheme of the two Acts that the amount collected by way of tax cannot be part of the turnover of the dealer and if the impugned Act makes it a part of the turnover by a deeming provision it must be struck down as being outside the legislative competence of the State Legislature It is necessary to emphasise here that no question of legislative competence arose in Krishnaswamy Mudaliar s case  the decision being based on a construction of section 8 B and the Turnover and Assessment Rules only
We do not think that the distinction drawn in Krishnaswamy Mudaliar s case  whether right or wrong on a question of construction only is material to the question of legislative competence
In The Tata Iron  Steel Co Ltd vs The State of Bihar 2 this Court dealt with a provision in the Bihar Sales Tax Act 1947 similar to section 8 B of the principal Act
Das C J delivering the majority opinion said The circumstance that the 1947 Act after the amendment permitted the seller who was a registered dealer to collect the sales tax as a tax from the purchaser does not do away with the primary liability of the seller to pay the sales tax
This is further made clear by the fact that the registered dealer need not if he so pleases or chooses collect the tax from the purchaser and sometimes by reason of competition with other registered dealers he may find it profitable to sell his goods and to retain his old customers even at the sacrifice of the sales tax
This also makes it clear that the sales tax need not 1 1954 5 STC 88
2  74 582 be passed on to the purchasers and this fact does not alter the real nature of the tax which by the express provisions of the law is cast upon the seller
The buyer is under no liability to pay sales tax in addition to the agreed sale price unless the contract specifically provides otherwise
See Love vs Norman Wright Builders Ltd L R
These observations show that when the seller passes on the tax and the buyer agrees to pay sales tax in addition to the price the tax is really part of the entire consideration and the distinction between the two amounts tax and price loses all significance from the point of view of legislative competence
The matter is not in any way different under the Turnover and Assessment Rules
It is true that in column 11 of Form A the amount collected by way of tax under section 8 B has to be shown that does not however mean that an immutable distinction such as will go to the root of legislative competence has been drawn and must be always maintained
It appears to us that the true effect of section 8 B and the Turnover and Assessment Rules is that a a registered dealer is enabled to pass on the tax b an unregistered dealer cannot do so and c the amount collected by way of tax is to be shown separately for it has to be paid over to Government
This does not mean that it is incompetent to the legislature enacting legislation pursuant to entry 54 in List 11 by suitable provision to make the tax paid by the purchaser to the dealer together with the sale price in consideration of the goods sold a part of the turnover of the dealer nor does it mean that in law the tax as imposed by Government is a tax on the buyer making the dealer a mere collecting agency so that the tax must always remain outside the sale price
There is another aspect from which the question may be considered
We shall assume that under the scheme of the principal Act a distinction is drawn between the amount collected by way tax and the sale price other than the tax
Is such a distinction continued and maintained by the impugned Act Learned Counsel for the appellants has referred us to 583 section 2 of the impugned Act where the expression collected by him by way of tax under the Madras General Sales Tax Act 1939 occurs
It is argued that the aforesaid expression in the impugned Act has to be read with the provisions of the principal Act and so read B 2 maintains and continues the distinction made under the principal Act
Again we are unable to agree
The expression collected by him by way of tax etc is merely descriptive of the amounts so collected the essential and operative part of section 2 says that the amounts so collected shall be deemed to have formed part of the turnover of the dealer
Therefore in express terms section 2 states that the tax shall be deemed to have formed part of the turnover and obliterates the distinction if any between tax  and turnover  for the limited period during which the impugned Act operates
To hold that the distinction is maintained and continued under the impugned Act is to go against the express terms of section 2
This aspect of the question was adverted to in The Government of Andhra vs East India Commercial Co Ltd 1 where the Andhra High Court had occasion to consider the question from a somewhat different point of view namely an amendment made by the Andhra Pradesh Legislature in the definition of the expression turnover  in the principal Act
Section 2 of the amending Act substituted the following definition of turn over  Turnover means the total amount set out in the bill of sale or if there is no bill of sale the total amount charged as the consideration for the sale or purchase of goods  including any sums charged by the dealer for anything done in respect of the goods sold at the time of or before the delivery of the goods and any other sums charged by the dealer whatever be the description name or object thereof
 Section 4 of the amending Act repeated sections 8 B and 8 C of the principal Act
Dealing with the effect of these amendments the High Court of Andhra Pradesh said 1 1957 8 STC 114
584 The ultimate economic incidence of the sales tax is on the consumer or the last purchaser and whatever he pays for the goods is paid only as price that is to say as consideration for the purchase
The statutory liability however for payment of sales tax is laid on the dealer on his total turnover  whether or not he realises the tax from the purchasers
Generally speaking the price charged by the dealer would be inclusive of sales tax for it is to his interest to pass the burden of the tax to the purchaser
So far as the dealer is concerned the payment of a sum covering the tax made by a purebaser on the occasion of sale is really part of the price which the purchasers pay for the goods
 Later it referred with approval to the decision in Sri Sundararajan and Co Ltd vs The State of Madras 1
In this latter decision the validity of the impugned Act was questioned and dealing with section 2 of the impugned Act the High Court said Section 2 only enacted that such amount shall be deemed  to be part of the turnover and for a limited period
It may not be necessary to set out authorities for the well settled principle of what the effect is of the use of the expression deemed  in a statute
Was the legislature competent to enact section 2 including the deeming provision is the real question
If the validity of section 2 of the impugned Act is established there should be little difficulty in upholding the validity of section 3 which gave effect to the legal fiction enacted by section 2
Obviously it is not the name the legislature accords to a payment by a purchaser to a seller who is a dealer as defined by the Act that determines the question of the legislative competence
No doubt section 8B called the payment as amount collected by way of tax
It is equally true that the statutory liability to pay the sales tax is laid on the dealer
What is taxable is not each transaction of sale but the total turnover of the dealer computed in accordance with the provisions of the 1 1956 7 STC 105
585 Act and the Rules
But it is well recognised that whatever be the form of the statutory provisions the ultimate economic incidence of the tax is on the consumer the purchaser
It was that well settled principle that was re stated in Bengal Immunity Co Ltd vs State of Bihar 1
Even if the registered dealer collects the amount by way of tax under the authority of section 8B of the Act the payment is by the purchaser on the occasion of the sale by the dealer
Vis a vis the dealer it is in reality part of the price the purchaser has to pay the seller for purchasing the goods
A tax on such a payment in our opinion is well within the ambit of Entry 54 of List 11 Schedule VII read with Article 2463 of the Constitution
 We are of the view that the aforesaid observations correctly give the true effect of section 2 of the impugned Act and section 3 of the impugned Act is merely consequential
Mr Sikri appearing on behalf of
the States of Maharashtra and Punjab has drawn our attention to certain American decisions which show that treating tax as part of the sale price in cases where the tax is passed on to the buyer is well recognised and is not unknown to law see Lash s Products Company vs United States 73 L Edn 251 Pure Oil Company vs State Of Alabama 148 American Law Reports 260
We consider it unnecessary to examine these decisions because the validity of the impugned Act must be determined on its own terms in the context of the provisions of the principal Act
Reading the impugned Act in the light of the provisions of the principal Act it seems clear to us that the impugned Act cannot be held to be bad on the ground of legislative incompetence
Under the definition of turnover the aggregate amount for which goods are bought or sold is taxable
This aggregate amount includes the tax as part of the price paid by the buyer
The amount goes into the common till of the dealer till he pays the tax
It is money which he keeps using for his business till he pays it over to Government
Indeed 1 586 he may turn it over again and again till he finally hands it to Government
There is thus nothing anomalous in the law treating it as part of the amount on which tax must be paid by him
This conception of a turnover is not new
It is found in England and America and there is no reason to think that when the legislatures in India defined turnover  to include tax also they were striking out into something quite unknown and unheard of before
The only question which has been raised in these appeals is regarding the validity of the impugned Act
That question having been decided against the appellants the appeals fail and are dismissed with costs
One hearing fee
Appeals dismissed


Summary:
Certain amounts collected by the appellants as sales tax were included in their turnover by the sales tax authorities
They contested the constitutional validity of the Madras General Sales Definition of Turnover and Validation of Assessments Act 1954 on the ground inter alia that the Sate Legislature went beyond its legislative competence under entry 54 of List If of the Constitution in enacting by the impugned Act that the amounts collected by the dealer by way of tax shall be deemed to have formed part of his turnover
Held that entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution is similar to entry 48 of List 11 of Sch
Vil of the Government of India Act 1935 sales under which have been held to be transactions passing title to the Goods from the seller to the buyer and that a mere executory agreement was not a sale within the meaning of that entry
The same meaning must be given to entry 54
571 State of Madras vs Gannon Dunkerly  Co Ltd  and Sales Tax Officer vs Ms Budh Prakash jai Prakash   referred to
Under sections 2i and 2h of the Madras General Sales Tax Act 1939 the expression turnover means the aggregate amount for which goods are sold either for cash or deferred payment or other Valuable consideration and when a sale attracts purchase tax which is passed on to the consumer what the buyer has to pay includes the tax and the aggregate amount to be paid would fall under the definition of turnover
When the seller passes on the tax and the buyer agrees to pay sales tax in addition to the price the tax is really part of the entitle considerations
Papreka Ltd vs Board of Trade  Love vs Norman Wright Builders Ltd  followed
Asoka Marketing Co Ltd vs The State of Bihar 1959 IO STC 110 and Tata Iron and Steel Co vs The State of Bihar   referred to
Although section 8B of the Madras General Sales Tax Act 1939 and the Turnover and Assessment Rules separately mentioned the amounts collected as tax for the purpose of paying such amounts to the Government no immutable distinction was drawn between the sale price and the tax nor was any such distinction maintained under section 2 of the impugned Act
Assuming that such a distinction did exist the Legislature was competent to enact under entry 54 in List II of the Constitution that the tax shall be deemed to have formed part of the turnover and obliterate the distinction for the limited period during which the impugned Act operated
The impugned Act was therefore valid
The Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes vs M Kyishna swami Mudaliar 1954 5 STC 88 held not applicable
Sri Sundararajan  Co vs The State of Madras 1956 7 STC 105 approved
The Government of Andhya vs East India Commercial Co Ltd 1957 8 STC 114 and Bengal Immunity Co Ltd vs State Of Bihar1955 2 SCR 603 referred to